Extra Time
by djinni14
Summary: Book 3 of the Trilogy for "Timing is everything" and "It's all about time". You need to read the first two to better understand this story. This story picks up immediately after the ending of book 2. What would you do with all of this extra time? Provided you knew you had the time. - NOW COMPLETE
1. Chapter 1

**CH1**

**(May)**

Kate was sitting at her desk sipping the sludge that the precinct called coffee, making a face of disgust. "I can't take this crap, I need real coffee. Something to wake me up."

Kate was just rounding the corner when she remembered her coffee. "There is a coffee shop just around the corner from the precinct." And it had Kate walking that way, when suddenly she started jogging or she was going to miss him.

Kate made it to the door and stopped and waited outside for the door to open, except it didn't. "Maybe I'm early." Kate talked to herself and went inside. Kate gave her order and started looking around, he should already be here.

Kate had her coffee and was standing there sipping her coffee while she waited. Problem was she had finished drinking her coffee and he still wasn't here. "Damn it, where are you? And why am I waiting here for you anyway?"

Kate ordered another cup of coffee and took it with her to the precinct.

Stepping out onto the 4th floor felt really familiar for a change, someplace she hadn't been for a long time now. "Long time?" Where the hell did that thought come from?

She was in early and Ryan and Espo weren't here yet. It allowed her a moment to put her weapon away while turning on her computer. "Why is it taking so long?" Kate slapped the monitor. "And why isn't it a flat screen?"

Kate looked around and no one had a flat screen. "WHY?"

"Morning Beckett." Roy calls out as he walks past her and into his office.

"Morning sir." Kate answers back happy to see him, and then suddenly pissed as hell. "You back stabbing, lying son of a, ..." Kate slapped her hand over her mouth. Where the hell did that come from?

Roy was at his doorway again. "Don't forget to pick up Castle this morning for the Tisdale case from yesterday." Roy goes back inside his office and sits down. "Ryan and Espo picked up the case during your day off yesterday."

"CASTLE!" Her favorite writer. The Tisdale case. All of that sounded so familiar, so very familiar.

"No sir, I know just where he lives sir." Kate answers and grabs her weapon, car keys and her coat and heads down to the parking garage.

Crown Victoria. "The Charger must be in the shop. Just why are all of the Chargers missing?" Kate looked around.

Kate pulled up outside of Castle's loft, somehow knowing that he lived here. Kate held up her badge to the doorman. "I'm here to see Richard Castle." Kate comments as she starts walking past him.

"Mr. Castle doesn't live here anymore officer. …. He moved out roughly a month ago. His old unit is presently empty waiting for the new owner to move in." The door man calls after her just as Kate opens the outside door.

MOVED! But he lives here. I know he lives here. "Where did he move to?" Kate turns back, surprised. I even know what his loft looks like, I've been inside several times, and never in my lifetime.

"I'm sorry officer, I don't have that information. I do know that he didn't move out of state." The doorman offers.

"Thanks." Kate tells him and gets back into her car. "But he lives here." Kate started her car and headed back to the precinct to look up where Castle had moved to.

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Alexis ran down the stairs and into the kitchen and slammed into her dad. "Thank you, thank you, thank you." Alexis was happy.

Rick was still trying to figure out why he was in a kitchen, let alone this kitchen. "You're welcome pumpkin. … And why, ... what am I thanking you for?" Rick was even more confused now. He was in a kitchen and he was pretty sure it was his kitchen, it just didn't feel like his kitchen.

"You got me a puppy daddy." Alexis looks up him.

Rick looked down at his daughter and she was young, … again. Though she was always young in his eyes, just that now she even looked younger. "Puppy, what puppy?" Rick was starting to think he was losing his mind.

Then a puppy came running into the kitchen after finally making it down the stairs since he wasn't used to going up and down them just yet. He came flying into the kitchen and put on the brakes only to slide across the floor till he was almost all the way to the other side. Then he scrambled while raking his big puppy feet across the smooth floor and made it over to Alexis and started jumping all over her legs.

Alexis sat down on the floor and took the puppy in her arms and started hugging him while the puppy squirmed in her arms trying his best to give Alexis's face a bath. Getting Alexis to chuckle.

"Puppy." Rick looked down at the two of them. "When did we get a puppy?" Rick tried to remember going out and coming home with a puppy. Any puppy, let alone what looked like a Golden Retriever puppy.

At least it was a real dog puppy, not some stupid Chihuahua puppy. It was going to grow up into a real dog and not stay a wind-up toy.

"What's his name?" Rick asks, since he didn't have a clue.

"Mellow daddy." Alexis looked up at Rick like he had lost his mind. How could he not know the name of the puppy. "Can we show mom the new puppy?" Alexis looks up hopeful.

"Your mother? … Your mother lives in California pumpkin." Rick was pretty sure she did, though he was confused about that. It felt like he was supposed to be having coffee with her right now.

"No dad, Kate is at work." Alexis knew her mom worked today, and would be home with her suitcase later tonight and stay with them.

"Kate!" Rick's head shot up and it had him looking out the window at nothing. Not Meredith but Kate, Captain Kate Beckett of the 12th precinct.

Just how was Kate mom when he knew they weren't even married. And yet it felt like they had been together for years, just not in this house.

HOUSE! Why were they in a house in the first place? They lived downtown in the loft, didn't they?

Go see Kate. … Maybe she had some answers, since he was fresh out. "You need to get dressed first. You can't go see anyone dressed like that." Rick points out that Alexis was still in her PJ's.

"Ok daddy." And Alexis was up and running for the stairs with Mellow right on her heels, at least until the stairs where he was forced to stop and look up the stairs, wondering why his best friend had to keep going up and down these scary things.

Still his best friend went up them so he was too, so up the stairs he went and then kicked in the after burners to catch up.

"Captain Kate Beckett." Rick tries her name on for size. Somehow it actually warmed his heart. "Now how do we get there, and where is there. …. Hell where is HERE, so we can get back." Rick didn't even know his own address.

It was now that Rick saw some mail sitting on the breakfast bar, likely from yesterday that he hadn't opened yet. Rick picked them up and all but one said the same thing.

Richard Castle, 9 Timber Trail, Rye, New York 10580. "Rye, we live in Rye? That's upstate New York, isn't it?" Sounded like if they were going to get into downtown Manhattan they were going to need transportation.

Buick or the Ferrari? Then he looked at the other piece of mail. Katherine Beckett. 9 Timber Trail, Rye, New York 10580.

"KATE LIVES HERE!?" Rick looked at his ring finger that was empty. How can she live here if he wasn't married? Were they living together? Going to live together, only hadn't moved her yet?

THIS WAS NUTS!

Ok think Rick, think. Alexis called her mom and he could see her. He could even feel her in his heart. Kate Beckett was special, really, really special.

"Keys." Rick put his hand in his pocket and pulled out a fob that had a Mercedes symbol on it. "I thought I had a Buick." Rick was confused.

Rick was still looking over the mail, his, Kate's and the keys in his hand. "Can we take Mellow with us daddy?" Alexis was back.

Rick shook his head to try and clear it. "I suppose, we need his leash." Rick comments and watches Alexis hold it up.

"Hook him up than and let's go." Rick tells her and heads for the door that leads to the garage. Just how did he know that it did, since this place didn't feel right to him.

Rick stepped out into the garage and found two cars to choose from. Rick looked at the closest car first.

2009 Maserati Quattroporte Sport GT S

The keys in his hand were for a Mercedes, so who's was the Maserati and where was his Ferrari? Not that he minded owning a Maserati. Rick tried opening it. "Locked. … I need the keys."

Rick pressed the button on the keys he did have and watched the lights flash and then it sound two beeps for the next car over. "Get in and get buckled up and I'll be right back." Rick tells Alexis.

Rick somehow knew where the keys were, or in this case the spare set of keys, and was soon back pressing the button for the Maserati and sat inside. It actually felt familiar somehow sitting in the passenger seat.

Rick started searching it and eventually found the registration form. Katherine Beckett, 9 Timber Trail, Rye, New York 10580. "This is Kate's car." Rick suddenly could almost see Kate sitting in the driver's seat next to him with Alexis in the back seat.

Except it didn't make sense, none of this did. And yet it also felt right somehow.

Rick took the registration card and the keys with him and re-locked the car and got in the Mercedes. "12th precinct." Rick whispers out and presses the button to open the garage door and starts the car, and pulls up the navigation display and finds the 12th precinct already programmed into the car.

Rick knew he, they, had a Maserati so what was this car, so he searched for the registration card.

2009 Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG

"O-kay, that makes things easy. …. Ready to go back there?" Rick looks into the rear view mirror.

Alexis had the puppy in her lap. "Ready dad." Alexis was anxious to go see Kate. Alexis was confused too. She didn't remember living in this house or ever having a puppy. She did however remember her dad having a car a lot like this one, just different.

What Alexis wanted was for her mom to explain all this to her. Her dad might have answers, it's just that Alexis wanted to hear it from Kate, her mother. Who was and wasn't her mother. It was one of the countless reasons she wanted to see Kate.

A little ways down Timber Trail for a right turn onto Polly Park Road followed by a right on North Street to get to the access ramp for Hutchinson River Parkway. This continued for a number of miles before transferring to Cross Country Parkway. This lasted for a few miles before transferring to Henry Hudson Parkway. Then a left at Canal Street until he reached the 12th precinct according to his GPS unit.

Then came the fun of finding someplace to park. The entire trip had taken just under 55 minutes. There was some traffic, but not bad. He knew that on better days it would take a little less time and on worse days it might take closer to 2 hours. Still he doesn't remember Kate complaining about the commute, not that he can remember Kate having said anything at all about it.

"Let's go see if we can surprise her." Rick offers as he helps Alexis out of the car along with Mellow who was thankfully still on his leash.

Rick with Alexis and Mellow in tow went inside. "We're here to see Katherine Beckett." Rick explains, choosing to leave off her rank. "I'm Richard Castle and this is Alexis Castle."

Rick watched and listened.

Kate had just gotten to her desk and getting her computer back to life and noticed that Ryan and Espo had gotten in while she was gone. "Castle, Castle." Kate talks to herself. They wanted to talk to him about the case they had. A somehow really familiar case.

Kate picked up her desk phone when it rang. "Beckett. … Castle is here?" That got Ryan to look up and Espo to turn in his chair. "Yeah, send him up." Kate hung up and gave up looking up where he lived and simply waited for Castle to get to her.

Kate was sitting there looking towards where the elevator was, even if she couldn't see it from her desk. Then a young girl who had a puppy on a leash came around the corner. She was younger than Kate thought she would be as soon as she saw her.

The hair color was about right, if not a little darker perhaps. However it was the "MOM!" And Alexis running for her and end up with her arms around the young girl, that suddenly for reasons that Kate didn't understand, that had both of them in tears.

Kate was squeezing Alexis for all she was worth, while feeling Alexis hug her back. "Alexis honey!" Kate knew her name. Kate didn't understand how she did, but she did.

Kate buried her head into the young girl and breathed her in. It felt right somehow. Even having her in her arms felt right too.

"Hi Kate." Rick offered weakly.

Kate didn't let go of Alexis and didn't even try and wipe away the tears. "Hi babe." Kate smiles up at him and the recognition gets Rick to smile back at her. Plus Kate didn't use his name but her term of endearment for him.

Kate pulled back from Alexis just far enough to place her hands on each side of Alexis's face. "Look at you, you're so young." Kate was interrupted from saying anything else by a puppy that wanted in on the action. "And who is this?" Kate released Alexis and picked up the puppy who instantly did his best to lick Kate's face clean.

"His name is Mellow. … And what did you do to your hair mom?" Alexis tilted her head a little to look at Kate from a different side.

Kate did her best to hold the hyper puppy in place and chuckled. "This is what I look like. … Or did." Kate looked up at Rick. "How did you know to come here? And why are you two not at the loft?" Kate had countless questions, these two simply came out first.

"Apparently I sold the loft and bought a house, along with two new cars, one of which is in your name." Rick points out.

"MINE? … But I don't own a car." Kate states, though she did own a motorcycle.

"Well you do now." Rick pulls out the registration paper and hands it to Kate, who reads it.

Rick can see Kate's eyes open wide. "I OWN A BRAND NEW MASERATI!?" Kate could easily see her name and signature on the paper.

"You taking us for a ride Beckett?" Espo speaks up, since him and Ryan had been paying attention to everything that was going on. Including hearing the word, MOM.

"NO!" Kate gives Espo and quick look, before turning back to Rick and Alexis. "I don't understand."

"Neither do I, since the car I drove out here in isn't one I remember ever owning. Plus you have mail at the house that has the house address on it." Rick fishes it out of his pocket too and hands it over.

Kate has no problem seeing her name with 9 Timber Trail, Rye, New York 10580 typed in. The return address was for 1Police Plaza (1 PP). Kate instantly ripped it open and found a single sheet of paper.

"It's their acknowledgment for my change of address correction and asking that I review the address listed for any errors. … And you got this at this new house of yours?" Kate questions.

Kate watched Rick nod his head. "I also found this." Rick hands over his phone to Kate and watches her unlock his iPhone 3 and look at the screen.

"This says there was an appointment to move all my stuff. … with my address!" Kate looks up shocked. She was moved? What would she have found if she had gone home tonight before seeing Castle?

"Mom?" Kate looked at Alexis who looked about ready to cry.

"Oh, honey. … Come here." Kate pulled Alexis into her for a hug after putting the puppy back on the floor. "I don't understand Rick. … Any of this." Kate looks up at Rick who looked like he was just as lost as she was.

"And how did you know the code to my phone Kate?" Rick asks, getting an even more confused Kate looking back at him.

"I just did. … And it looks thin for some reason." It was still just a bit bulky, however it was thin compared to what she remembered. "What, ..." Kate closed her mouth since she was in the precinct.

"Kate?" Rick whispered and held onto Kate's left hand and held it up.

Kate sucked in her breath and slapped her hand over her mouth. "I'm married?" Kate talks through her hand.

"When the hell did I get married?" Kate whispers out hoping only just loud enough for Rick to hear and not Espo and Ryan.

"I'll see if I can find out while talking with my lawyer. Is there anyone you can remember marrying?" Rick asks as his heart sinks. Kate was married and he didn't think it was him.

Kate simply shook her head. "What the hell is going on Castle?"

"Find out what you can and we can talk when you get home." Rick chuckled. "Home! … Plan ahead a little tonight, it took me close to an hour to drive out here." Rick warns her.

"Do your work and I'll do mine and we can compare. We'll see you later tonight." Rick leaned in and kissed Kate. "Say goodbye pumpkin, we have places to go."

"You're coming home mom?" Alexis wasn't ready to leave and she hadn't asked her questions yet.

"I'll be there honey." Kate hugged and kissed her. "Take good care of your puppy." Kate reminds her.

Kate watched them both leave and felt the distance between them that came with that start pulling at her heart. "I better not be married." Kate didn't feel like she loved anyone else, so how could she be married?

And it suddenly hit Kate. She did love both of them and Kate suddenly cursed silently at herself. She had not thought of looking to see if Rick had a ring. If he didn't and she did, what did that mean for them?

This day was just too screwed up. It got Kate to turn back to her computer and fire off an email request to 1PP. She wanted to know if they had her as being married? If not that meant it was just an engagement ring and not too late to tell whoever he is, no thanks and give it back to him.

It's just that the ring wasn't like any normal engagement ring she was use to seeing. The main gem in the middle was obviously not a diamond that she was used to seeing, however the stones that circled it obviously were.

Maybe if she tried looking for something similar she could find out how much it cost and that might give her a clue as to who gave it to her. She obviously knew him, whoever he is.

Kate soon found that trying to do it backwards was proving to be difficult. Her search did show that there was a jeweler just down the road a few blocks. Maybe she could get it appraised during lunch?

Just did she want to know what the guy who bought it for her had spent on it? … Yes, yes she did.

Mark Broumand 5.30ct Fancy Yellow Oval Cut Diamond Engagement Ring VS2

Kate was standing at the counter while watching the guy who had come up front from someplace in the back of the store as he was bent over with his eyepiece in his eye.

"It's a nice ring, very nice. The main and even side settings are excellent. The main stone doesn't appear to have any flaws that I can easily detect. It has obviously been modified to fit your finger nicely." He hands it back to Kate.

"Can you offer a guess as to what it's worth?" Kate hated asking. It made her look like she didn't trust the man who had given it to her.

"I would say your man has chosen nicely and would say it is worth somewhere between $50 and $60, … thousand." He just couldn't resist teasing Kate and had delayed before adding the last part.

$60 thousand, … dollars? Kate was tempted to keep it off and place it where she couldn't lose it, or risk having it fall off her finger.

Still Kate put it back on and prayed.


	2. Chapter 2

**CH2 (still May)**

Kate found Castle and Alexis waiting for her at her desk after she slipped out to the jeweler and it had her heart beating fast. Had Castle seen where she went?

"Key Kate these are the spare keys to your car, have you got the primary keys with you?" Rick asks.

The keys to her Maserati, yeah, right. Like she had keys to an expensive Maserati! Still Kate pulled out her bag and went fishing and her eyes opened up wide when her hand stumbled across a set of keys.

After pulling out the keys she compared them to the set Rick had, and found they were identical. I OWN A MASERATI!?

"Martha?" Kate asks as she places the spare set of keys in Rick's hand but doesn't let go of them just yet.

Rick opened his mouth wide and then closed it. "I, … I don't actually know where she is at the moment. What about your father?" Rick countered.

Kate put her car keys back in her bag, since she would driving her cruiser home tonight. "Probably in his apartment." Kate was still a little in shock. She didn't own a car, only it looked like she did now.

"The house is big mom, really big. My bedroom is on the second floor like all the others." Alexis speaks up still in her mothers arms.

That got Kate to look at Alexis and felt her heart suddenly grow several sizes. Kate didn't know why or understand how, but knew that she loved this young lady with all of her heart.

The feeling was totally strange and comforting all at the same time. Kate was scared, no one had gotten into her heart before. Her walls were up and as strong as ever and yet when it came to these two, they didn't exist at all.

The three of them were locked in their own little world and didn't see the looks on Espo and Ryan. These two now had tons of ammunition to tease Beckett with. A little girl who calls her mom, moving out of her apartment and into a house with the author Richard Castle, even a brand new Maserati that Espo was dying to see. Oh he couldn't wait to go downstairs and share all this with Lanie.

"Ear plugs, I need ear plugs." Espo talks to himself.

"We should call the fire department before you tell Lanie and make sure they bring some EMT's with them. Lanie is going to kill Beckett." Ryan adds after hearing his partner.

"Our case Beckett." Espo talks a little louder.

"What?" Kate turned to look at Espo, still lost in what she was doing.

"The Tisdale murder. … You wanted to interview Castle." Espo jogs Kate's memory.

"Right. … Interview." Kate stood up. "You sit right here honey and play with your puppy. Your dad and I need to talk, privately." Kate lifts up Alexis and puts her in her chair and puts the puppy in her lap. "Don't go anywhere honey. After your dad and I are done I can get you a soda, how's that sound?"

"Ok mom." Alexis thought her questions could wait. Having Kate hug her and let her call her mom was enough for now.

Alexis watched Kate, her dad and the guy called Espo go into another room and close the door.

Alexis sat there quietly and and petted her puppy that suddenly seemed content to be in her lap and be petted.

Alexis watched them walk back out of the room and started smiling. "I'll get my publicist to have all my mail sent over." Rick tells Kate. "A lot of it isn't going to be G-rated." Rick reminds them.

"Castle about, …." Kate stopped herself. There was something important she wanted to talk with him about, but it could wait.

"Let me know if there is anything you need help with. I can't wait to tell the guys at the poker game about this." Rick was suddenly happy.

"CASTLE, she's dead, don't sound so happy about it." Kate chastised Rick.

"I know that Kate and I know you will solve it. It's just having someone kill people like I write in my books is like the Holy Grail for writers. … And why copy something from one of my older books? Not one of my greater works." Rick points out.

Kate was saved from making a comment when Rick's phone started pinging. "It's time to leave for my appointment with my lawyer. You have the address for the house, I'll try and have dinner ready for all of us. Text me when you are headed home." Rick leans in and gives Kate a quick kiss to her lips.

That got Kate to drag Rick into the break room and close the door and shove Rick up against the door and kiss him, hard. Not waiting to ask permission for her tongue to enter, just went right in and kissed Rick. Getting Rick to kiss her back.

Kate finally broke for air and rested her forehead against Rick's since she was wearing her high heeled boots so she was only just a little shorter than Rick at the moment.

"WOW!" Kate whispered out.

"Yeah! WOW." Rick whispered back. "There was something familiar about that kiss too." Rick added. "Kate, there is something about all of this that feels familiar and yet new at the same time. Does any of this make sense to you?"

"Not much no. And yet all of it, except for the house. … I went to the loft to bring you in for questioning and the doorman said you had moved." Kate tells him.

"I, … I don't remember moving. I found your letter in the kitchen, your car in the garage and Alexis was asking me if we were going to go see mom now. … It's just that Alexis meant you." Rick tells her.

"We have a lot to talk about Rick. I don't, … It feels right and frightening at the same time. I don't even know why I'm doing this, but it feels right and it scares me." Kate confides which in itself was a bit scary. Just when did she learn to open up to her favorite writer?

"I need to go Kate, maybe my lawyer will have some answers. Hopefully we can give each other answers tonight. Try not to be late." Rick asks of Kate and gives Kate a quick kiss.

"Castle!" Kate had an urge to tell him to move her back to her apartment. All she knew was the Rye, New York was north of here, and likely going to take some time to reach. If she lived there her commute wasn't going to be easy. Making those early in the day calls not necessarily fast to reach.

It's just that this was Richard Castle and it felt like she had been living with him already. So many questions. "Nothing, I'll see you tonight. I'll try not to be too late." Kate couldn't promise, since her hours were nuts.

Castle's letters had arrived too late in the day to put them to use and she had heard that Mr. Tisdale would be back in town tomorrow, so she needed to wait until tomorrow to see him. Still there was something about this case that was familiar. Maybe her talk with Tisdale would help.

Kate decided to bail out of work before Lanie could get her claws into her, before Kate had, had a chance at talking with Rick and Alexis. So with address and map in hand she started driving, noticing that it so far was all highway/interstate until she got off, and soon found herself surrounded by trees. It really was nothing like downtown Manhattan.

There was a circular drive out front that also lead to a 2-car garage, guessing that was where her supposed Maserati was located. Kate parked, got out and looked it over.

The left side of the house was 2 floors with an interesting barrel roof while the right side of the house was single story with a flat roof. There was a lot of nice wood along with a lot of windows, especially on the right side.

The front door was easy to find and Kate was actually smiling since she liked the look of the front of the house and pressed the button. The door was soon opened. "I told you to wait Alexis." Kate could hear Rick yelling from somewhere in the house.

"MOM!" And Kate got crashed into. At first being called mom had Kate running scared and then when Alexis was in her arms again, it melted away.

"Hi honey, how was your day?" Kate asks hugging Alexis.

Alexis was interrupted when Mellow made his presence known as he came running out the front door to greet both of them.

It had Kate giggling as she let go of Alexis and picked up Mellow who promptly did his best to make sure Kate's face was cleaned to his satisfaction. "Ok, enough licking." Kate put Mellow back down and wiped her face with her hands.

"Hi Kate, come on in. You should see this place." Rick offers even if neither of them had been here for long.

Kate got a quick tour of the house, starting with the living room that had a stone wall with a fireplace that had a set of stairs curving up behind it. The room itself had curved walls to match what she saw out front.

The huge kitchen was next and Rick had something in the oven since she could smell it. The island was massive and the upper cabinets all had glass fronts showing what was inside. The pantry was a side wall of cabinets.

Just off of the kitchen was another wall of identical stone like the living room. It was home to an eat in kitchen table that looked like hers from her apartment with a wall of windows that looked out into the backyard.

The dining room was on the other side of that wall and had another full wall of the same stone wall the other 2 walls were glass from floor to ceiling that looked out onto the back yard.

The family room was so far the one room that she didn't much like, it was just too plain compared with the rest of the house. However it was a nice size and maybe it could be remodeled somehow.

Rick showed off his office where he would be writing books next. "WOW, what is with this carpet?" Kate walked around looking at the zebra style carpet. Except for the black of the stripes the room was all white with a wall of windows. One wall was book shelves.

Up the wood stairs behind the fireplace took them to the bedrooms, with the master bedroom being massive and sitting just over the living room below. It had an entire wall of glass with a door leading out onto its own balcony.

The master bathroom had a large glass enclosed shower, a sunken tub and even sauna room. "What kind of stone is this?" Kate asks not expecting an answer as she ran her hand across the smooth surface of the double lavatory.

Off of the master bedroom was a massive closet area that actually had its own island in the middle that had drawers in it. There were 18 thin vertical doors that opened into the closet area to hang clothes in.

"These are mine." Kate started opening several doors and found all her clothes from her apartment along with all of her shoes. There was actually room for even more clothes and shoes. It was amazing. "I really am moved in." Kate looks at Rick not remembering this place at all.

"Just your clothes are up here. You saw your dining room table down in the kitchen eat in area, along with all of your living room furniture and paintings in the family room. Your kitchen items went out into the attached guest house." Rick explains.

There was an attached guest house with living, dining and kitchen. "You must be Katherine." Martha got up from the sofa from where she was watching TV.

"MARTHA!" Kate was suddenly happy to see her, even if she didn't understand why.

It caught Martha by surprise when Katherine hugged her, however Martha recovered quickly and hugged Kate back with enthusiasm.

"I take it my son and granddaughter are giving you the tour. … I have to admit I was surprised that my son was hiding you. However I can see why, you're lovely dear." Martha pulled back to look at Kate while keeping her hands of Kate's upper arms. Watching Kate start to blush.

"I get my own space attached to the main house. I get company when I want it and my independence when I want it. … Have you seen everything yet?" Martha asks her.

"Not quite all of it mother, we still have a few rooms left, plus the backyard." Rick answers her question.

"Well you go see dear, I'll still be here when you are done. Than we can sit and talk over dinner. I want to hear everything dear. Everything." Martha hugged Kate again, still not sure just where her son found her. Just listening to him and Alexis, she was something special.

After seeing the rest of the bedrooms and the exercise room, they went outside where there was a large patio area complete with a grill that had its own exhaust hood over it. She also got to see the fenced in pool that looked big enough to do laps in. At the moment it was covered with a taught cloth cover.

Kate turned around and looked at the back of the house and saw practically nothing but windows. "Oh there is a tennis court with a small Gazebo on the other side of the circular drive." Rick points when Kate knew she had no chance of seeing it standing in the backyard.

"How big?" Kate asks.

"Five bedrooms, 4 full baths, 1 half bath, 8600 square feet in total on 6.35 acres of land which as you can see is mostly trees." Rick informs her.

"Castle, what are you, … we, going to do with a house this big?" Why did you buy this?

"I've got one more thing to show you and then we can eat and talk." Rick guides them all back inside. "Stay out here with Mellow pumpkin, make sure he does his business before coming inside and met us in the kitchen."

Rick takes Kate out to the garage. "This one is yours and mine is over there." Rick points out getting Kate to open her mouth wide. Being told there was a Maserati with her name on the registration was one thing, seeing it in person was another.

In this case it was silver with a black interior. It had a large screen for touch screen controls along with GPS. It was an automatic with a manual override transmission with paddle shifters. It even had voice control and could sink with her phone to make hands free calls with.

"You can take it out for a spin after dinner." Rick offers. "I did some fast research on it for you. 4.7 liter 433 HP with a V8 engine that can get up to 177 MPH."

It had Kate giddy at the prospect of this car, just what could this puppy do?

Kate had washed and was in the kitchen watching Rick put dinner together, and it felt like she had done this before. "Where do I put this?" Kate taps her weapon at her side.

"Apparently I thought about that ahead of time somehow. Follow me." Rick takes her to the front door. "I found a gun safe in this cabinet. I think you're supposed to open it with a finger or thumb print." Rick offers.

Kate gave it a try and put her thumb on the little red panel and felt it fall open revealing a space to store her weapon in. Kate placed her weapon inside and closed it. "I guess that takes care of needing a key or a code." Kate laughs.

"Any more surprises?" Kate asks looking at Rick.

"A few yeah. I found one of those in the kitchen along with one in each of the bedrooms in the main house along with one in the garage that I forgot to point out. Interestingly they each already have a weapon in them, only this one was empty." Rick supplies.

"You can open this one?" Kate was shocked about all of it. Just how many weapons did they need? However it sounded like they were all locked up. "Can Alexis open any of them?" It was Kate's only fear.

"Alexis hasn't tried all of them yet, but the one's she did she couldn't open, neither could my mother." Rick took away any fears.

Any more thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the oven alarm. "Alexis, go get your grandmother and tell her dinner is ready." Rick yelled out as he walked for the kitchen.

Kate searched the kitchen to find all the plates, glasses and silverware.

Kate was enjoying sitting down and eating. It felt like eating with a family again and even the food that Rick had cooked felt familiar somehow. Part of her knew she had never done this before while another part told her that she had done this a lot.

"So, how did you two meet?" Martha was curious.

That got Kate to stop eating. They met at work when Rick and Alexis had shown up suddenly, and yet, …

"We met at a coffee shop mother." Rick felt like they did, even if he did have to look up where Kate worked.

"COFFEE SHOP! … Right! We literally ran into each other at the door, he was coming out and I was going in." Kate agrees now that she could see it in her mind. "I recognized Castle immediately since my mother was a big fan of his books." Kate was nowhere near ready to tell his mother just how big a fan she was.

"A few phone calls and lots of coffee later and here we are." Rick breaks it way down and leaves out a lot of stuff, that Kate recognized immediately.

"I'm sure there is a story in there somewhere, however I can wait. I'm just glad you two found each other. Alexis has been chattering away about this Katherine I had yet to met all day." Martha informs her.

It got Kate to smile since she felt something when she looked at Alexis, it didn't hurt listening to Alexis call her mom. It's just that she didn't really remember anyone her age calling her mom. It was scary and comforting at the same time.

Martha only asked a few more questions before she retired to her section of the home.

"Martha took that well." Kate points out while Rick removes the dirty plates, and serves himself and Kate coffee. Kate sips her coffee and sighs as she feels the caffeine flow through out her body.

"Do you understand what is going on?" Rick asks. "I mean in some ways I don't know you and yet it feels like I've known you for years and I don't mean college sweethearts years." Rick wanted to hear her thoughts.

"I've been having that problem all day. Until you mentioned the coffee shop it was like I had forgotten it. Even now it feels like a dream of something. We met there and yet didn't meet there." Kate agrees.

"You said you went to the loft and I feel like we should be there. I'm actually as shocked as you are that I'm out here. I just don't remember this house." Rick spreads his arms wide.

"I can picture the loft too. Open kitchen with living and dining room. A large bookcase that leads to your study. The stairs that went up to Alexis's bedroom. Leather sofa, fireplace, the master bedroom wasn't that big, but the on-suite was nice." Kate could see it in her mind.

"I hear a "but" coming." Rick points out.

"I feel that I know Alexis and yet I don't. I picture her being older not whatever age she is now." Kate could see Alexis as a grown teenager who was far more responsible than she ever was herself.

"Alexis is eleven and you're right. I can see her being older and doing something amazing." Rick offered.

"Eleven." Kate thinks it over. "I see her as being older, and she was doing something. Something about water, I can see her sitting next to me and I was sure we were going to, ..." Kate opened her eyes wide suddenly.

"Crash into the water! … Alexis was, ..." Kate hears Rick say the same word as she was thinking.

"**FLYING!"**

"We were going to and from someplace. Someplace that we spent a lot of time at. I spent all my time running around in a bikini because it was so warm." Kate comments.

That had Rick smiling. "I remember those bikini's, perhaps you could model one for me later?" Rick teased.

"Down boy. … What did you find from your lawyer?" Kate changed subjects.

"That's got me even more confused. It seems I still own the loft and I'm simply renting it out to a family that hasn't moved in yet. As for this house, ..." Rick wasn't sure what Kate was going to think of this, since it had left him with his mouth hanging on the floor. The fact that his lawyer had been completely serious had only made things more shocking.

"It seems WE own the house, all of the paperwork is signed and it's paid for. A little over $4 million in fact. … It's just that my lawyer can't figure out where the money to buy it came from.

I haven't sold the loft or any of my other properties in and outside of New York. The property insurance is also already paid for, for one full year. And like the house, he couldn't find where the money for it came from.

All of my bank accounts are unchanged save for normal expenses." Rick explains.

"You can't just own a home Rick without paying for it." Kate counters. Kate decided to skip the WE part for now. There were just too many questions.

"That's just it Kate, it is paid for. It's just that the money for it didn't come from any bank account that I own. … It's the same for the cars. The Buick and Ferrari that I thought I owned show no history of me ever owning them." Rick adds looking at the shocked face of Kate.


	3. Chapter 3

**CH3 (Still May)**

"She was flying a plane and we were landing at a small airstrip that we could barely land safely at. I just knew she was going to land on water each time we landed there." Kate was picturing it in her mind.

"We were going somewhere and we were going to be alone there, just the three of us." Rick twisted his head as if that would help shake lose a memory. "There was a house, boats and chickens I think."

"And tents somewhere else that we walked across a bridge to get between the two and there were these big towers outside." Kate squeezed her eyes closed. "And there was this whole wall of radio equipment." Kate opened her eyes to look at Rick.

"I went hunting out in the heat dressed in nothing more than a swimsuit and flip flops, just not with a gun, though we had several." Rick twisted his head again.

"A bikini." Kate added.

"Yeah, I remember those bikini's, you were so sexy walking around in a bikini all day." Rick started grinning.

"Keep dreaming writer-boy." Kate teased.

"This house has a pool out back Kate." Rick grinned wide and arched his eyebrows a couple of times.

"Maybe." Kate offered even if she was silently looking forward to summer suddenly. Teasing Castle walking around in a bikini was something she was looking forward to.

Then suddenly something hit her like a ton of brinks. "Rick?"

"It was an island. … No two islands. …. And we fell in love out there." Rick could almost picture it.

Kate was nodding her head. "You and Alexis made it into my heart that I had hidden away. We spent a lot of time out there. Months if not years actually. … Which is where I get lost." Kate points out.

"How can we have spent years together and fall in love when we both see Alexis as being older than eleven. We flew out there with food and weapons. … Just why all the weapons?" Rick could see lots of them with lots and lots of ammunition.

"You taught us how to use them. We went out shooting so we could get better." Rick could see it, even if he didn't remember what he did. When suddenly he sucked in his breath.

Kate opened her eyes at that. "We shot someone." Kate couldn't see them, however knew that with her police training it would have been in self-defense.

Rick nodded his head. "Lots and lots of bullets, I just can't see it." Rick shook his head. "I just don't understand. It feels like we were there for years. It's just that it was only us. Why am I having so much trouble remembering?" Rick looked at Kate with a pained face.

"We were, … we were together and yet I don't, ..." Kate had an equally pained look on her face.

They're talk was interrupted when Alexis came flying into the dining room with Mellow hot on her tail.

"Take your puppy outside and make sure he goes and than let's get you into bed, it's your bed time." Rick tells Alexis.

"Okay." Alexis takes Mellow out the back door and walks around the green grass area next to the pool.

Kate was standing next to Rick watching them. "All we had was sand, and I remember a pool, however it was a lot smaller." Kate comments while looking on, not seeing anything she remembered, until it hit her.

"It was raining." Kate offered.

It got Rick smiling. "We had super soakers." Rick's smile got bigger.

"Do we still have those?" Kate asks looking at Rick.

"We will by the end of the week. Maybe rifles instead of little hand guns this time." Rick was still smiling.

"Sounds like fun." Kate was smiling wide now. Kate suddenly found herself feeling better about herself and her life. It's just that what she was remembering wasn't real, was it?

"What?" Rick asks looking at her. He saw something flicker across her face.

"Uhmm, … nothing." Kate shakes her head.

"Don't force me to tickle you Kate to get you to talk." Rick did his best to glare at her.

"You wouldn't dare." Kate challenged him, only to watch Rick reach for her with his fingers already moving. It got Kate to squeal and run for it, with Rick hot on her heels.

Kate raced for the stairs to make it to one of the bathrooms upstairs so she could hide behind a locked door. Except she only made it as far as the top of the stairs before Rick caught up to her.

"Talk Kate." And Rick gave her a little tickle, getting her to squeal like a girl yet again before starting to laugh. Kate however was enjoying the playful nature of it.

"Fine, fine, just stop." Kate would tell him. Rick placed his hands on her hips and held her close and Kate found her hands on Rick's chest with her arms trapped between them.

"I can remember being in love with you, like it was some dream, but I just don't see why I love you and it's confusing. I can still feel all of my walls around my heart while part of me remembers all of my walls being down and I was in love with you, like crazy in love. … I know it doesn't make any sense." Kate couldn't look at him, she had just told him that she didn't love him.

"Would it surprise you if I felt the same. I can see you, talk to you and hold you and all of this feels familiar and I know that I love you. That I love all of you. Your walls, your faults, real or imagined. I can feel it and it's like a carrot dangling out in front of me. Just close enough that I can smell it, but just not reach it to taste it." Rick sighed and brought Kate's head into his chest and wrapped his arms around her.

Kate could feel her body try and melt into his arms, like they had done this countless times, even if part of her said this was the first time.

"We both somehow know a lot about the other, or I least I think we do. … Your father is Jim and he's a lawyer. Your mother died when you were young and it hurt you a lot. You are a homicide detective who guards her heart from everyone.

I can remember it took me some time to break through all of your walls, and if I have to I'll do it again." Rick tells her.

That got Kate to rub her cheek into his chest to find the best spot to hold her head against. "I can remember Meredith and Gina. I remember what those two did to Alexis and it broke my heart to hear the pain in Alexis's voice when she talks about those two. Just why is she actually younger than I remember her being?"

Alexis was a child, not an amazing young woman who knew how to fly a plane.

Then Kate felt Rick lift her head up to look at him and saw his lips getting closer and closer, and she wanted nothing more than to kiss them, so she met him half way.

Kate moved her arms up to wrap them around his neck and used one hand to stroke the small hairs on the back of his neck. Even after they broke for air they went back to kissing. Things were heating up fast and Kate found herself wanting him, knowing in the back of her mind just how amazing making love to him was going to be.

It wasn't going to be sex. Kate just knew it would be so much more than that.

Suddenly they were interrupted when Kate felt paws scratching at her legs. Kate broke from the kiss and looked down seeing Mellow trying to gain her attention. "Thanks a lot Mellow." Kate was annoyed with him for interrupting her kiss.

"Sorry." Alexis offers an apology getting Kate and Rick to jump apart and look at Alexis standing there looking guilty but happy. "I'm going to go to bed now. Night mom, night dad." Alexis offers and heads for her room with Mellow hot on her heals.

"Why is Alexis having less trouble with all of this?" Kate questions.

"To her things are simple and uncomplicated. Black and white. I'm betting she has questions, but is waiting to ask them." Rick offers.

"She isn't secure enough in herself anymore to ask them yet. You think she remembers things like we are?" Kate asks, since what she is remembering feels more like a dream than real life.

"Maybe, … I'm going to go clean up the kitchen from dinner." Rick starts down the stairs.

"Want some help?" Kate didn't know what to do if she didn't help.

"No, I'm fine. Go have fun. … Try out the exercise room maybe or go for that drive." Rick offered.

"MY MASERATI!" Kate all but yelled out and raced past Rick on her way to the garage.

"I'll be back in half an hour." Kate stopped at her bag to find her keys.

"I believe that's code for I'll be back before midnight, which we both know is a lie since you won't be back till 1:00 am." Rick teased while smiling.

"I have work tomorrow and the commute from here is likely to be an hour, plus we may get a body tonight, and I need the sleep." Kate counters.

Rick could soon hear the garage door opening and the sound of a Maserati with 477 HP being fired up. "Half an hour my ass!" Rick was smiling as he started cleaning up from dinner.

Rick was done and had the dishwasher running and was in the family room which had the largest TV in the house and had a DVD in the DVD player when suddenly Kate sat down next to him.

"Have fun?" Rick turned to look at Kate. "I'll take that smile that threatens to break your face as a yes." Rick smiled and it earned Rick a light punch in his arm.

That however got Rick to put his arm around the back of Kate and pull her in close. Something that felt right to do. And the way Kate didn't protest and actually scooted over closer and even lifted a leg to put it between his, told him that Kate thought it felt right too.

"What are we watching?" Kate had leaned her head against him.

"Something called Ironman. Which is strange. I know I haven't seen this movie yet, and yet I know just what is going to happen before it does happen. I even know some of the words they are all going to say." Rick tells her.

"Sounds like the story of our life. I know we're together and I think I know that I love you, even if I don't understand why. … I don't mean it the way it sounds. It's just that I know I love you up here." Kate taps her head. "It's here that my mind is having trouble reconciling." Kate taps her chest over her heart.

"And don't go ballistic on me Rick. This entire day has been one surprise after another." Kate didn't want him to think the wrong thing just because she says the wrong thing.

"I take it that means I'm not going to get lucky tonight?" Rick teased, which earned him a swat to his chest.

"Pepper shouldn't go in there, 5 FBI guys aren't going to be enough." Kate speaks up after watching the movie for a while.

"Obadiah had built his own suit which is powerful but very bulky." Rick adds, and they watch it all play out.

"Just push the damn button Pepper." Kate tells the TV.

"And Tony admits to being Ironman." Rick offers up before they even go into the press conference.

The credits are playing. "A weird movie to go with a really weird day." Kate comments.

"How was your drive?" Rick asks grinning.

"It was, ...nice." Kate tells him trying to suppress a smile.

"Meaning you had a blast." Rick translates from Beckett into English.

"Maybe." Kate took her leg back and started to sit up. "I need to get some sleep, living way out here is going to take some getting used to." Kate stands and heads for the stairs letting Rick deal with the DVD.

Rick hurried and caught up to her as she started to enter one of the spare bedrooms. "You know you can sleep with me, and I don't mean it like that. I promise no funny business." Rick tells her.

Kate turns and strokes his cheek. "I know and maybe tomorrow after we talk some more. I know we've slept in the same bed before, I just don't feel it yet. And I don't want to screw this up babe. We'll get there. … It took time last time so it'll take time this time too." Kate reached up and kissed his cheek.

"Night Castle." Kate tells him and enters the spare bedroom.

"Till tomorrow Kate. I have to figure out where Alexis goes to school in the morning, so I should have breakfast waiting for you." Rick tells her.

Kate hadn't even considered that. Was it because in her mind Alexis had already graduated high school early? Damn, some mother she was. Just was she Alexis's mother? Alexis was calling her mom and Kate was reacting to it like she was, just why was Alexis calling her mother?

It was too late in the day to talk to her, she was already in her room likely asleep, so it would have to wait.

Kate didn't completely close her door as she went to bed, after finding her sleep clothes in the master bedroom closet.

Rick was groaning in his bed while slowly waking up. His still groggy mind wasn't yet processing the noise he was hearing. Someone however was shaking him awake, which got Rick to turn to look. "Alexis?" Rick thought it was her.

"Come on dad you need to wake up." Alexis tried another time since she had been at this for a couple of minutes already.

Rick blinked his eyes to clear them. "What are you doing up?" Rick was getting there.

"Mom is downstairs crying dad. … You need to get up." Alexis shoves him again.

Rick looked at Alexis. What the hell was Meredith doing downstairs crying when she didn't even know where they lived? It didn't make any sense.

"Come on dad!" This time Alexis grabbed his arm and started pulling, since she wanted him up and downstairs to fix mom.

Rick was finally up and being pushed by Alexis while Mellow followed behind the two of them.

Alexis pushed Rick into the family room where Rick could finally hear someone sniffling. It got Rick to walk on his own finally not noticing that Alexis stayed at the entrance to the room.

On the sofa he found Kate still in her sleep shirt and not much else lying on the sofa sobbing softly as she occasionally wiped the tears away.

Rick was down on the floor and looking at Kate. "What's wrong Kate?" It was only now that his foggy mind had caught up to Alexis calling Kate mom.

"Go away Castle." Kate whispered out.

"We both know that's not going to happen Kate." Rick reached out and started stroking the top of Kate's head and let her wipe away the tears.

"Come on sit up." Rick helped Kate into a sitting position so he could sit down next to her and wrap his arms around her and hold her tight.

Kate had curled her arms up between them and let him hold her while she softly cried. It allowed Rick to just sit there holding her while rubbing circles on her back.

When the cries finally started to slow down. "Talk to me Kate, what caused this? A nightmare?" Rick offered. Was she reliving a moment where she had been forced to kill someone in the line of duty?

Kate simply shook her head and remained silent. "Did you call your dad? Did you remember something?" Rick tried again, knowing he was working with nothing here.

"I'm sorry Rick, I'm so sorry." Kate offered while wiping away her tears.

"Sorry, sorry for what? You haven't done anything wrong." Rick couldn't think of anything she had done wrong. None of this made sense.

"I, (hicup), … lost our baby. (hicup) I know I did (hicup) and I'm sorry." Kate switched to sobbing into his bare shoulder.

This was where it hit him like one of those ACME safes that the coyote would try to drop on the road runner, or a ton of bricks that fell on Roger Rabbit.

Kate was pregnant, and not just a little pregnant but just weeks from giving birth, and then poof, she wasn't pregnant at all.

"Kate honey you didn't do anything wrong." Rick wrapped his arms around her tighter and kissed her head. "You weren't just a little pregnant Kate, you were just weeks from giving birth and then you were never pregnant at all. Don't you remember that part?" Rick started rocking her softly back and forth.

"Someone took our baby before it was even born. It wasn't anything you did Kate. None of this is your fault, please tell me you are listening." Rick needed her to see what she saw last time.

Kate slowly stopped sobbing into his chest. "You're not mad at me? You don't hate me?" Kate almost wanted him to hate her, their baby was gone. It was her responsibility to protect it and she hadn't.

"Of course I'm not mad at you or hate you. Something has changed Kate, I just don't know what it is yet, but we'll figure it out." Rick tells her.

"Mom?" Alexis asks softly suddenly showing up in front of Kate. Rick had forgotten about Alexis, and how she had found Kate down here in the first place.

Kate looked up and saw a young Alexis since her mind was somewhere in on of the countless loops that they had done. "Alexis, honey!" And Kate changed from hanging onto Rick and switched to taking Alexis into her arms and held her tight.

"I don't know if it was real or a dream mom?" Alexis had her own problem, just didn't know how to talk about it.

Rick put his arms around both of them. "Was it real or was it a dream?" Rick decided to add his voice. He could hear the sound of his daughter's voice and it sounded like she was hurting.

Kate turned her head to look at Rick while not letting go of Alexis. "I don't know babe, I just don't know."

It did however get Rick to smile wide, she had called him babe again. "Tell me, … us about your version of the dream." Rick asks of her.

Kate wiped away her tears and sniffled. "We did meet at a coffee shop. I was taking the captains test so I could make captain and Captain Montgomery was helping me study. He was also teaching me how to run an entire precinct instead of just the homicide floor as a Lieutenant. I passed the test and made captain and applied for Montgomery's position since he was retiring." Kate paused to think about it.

"I got the job and had to go to some seminar that was going to be in this hotel over in Jersey. … There were army units at the bridge, tanks and other vehicles and lots of guns. I saw you two at the hotel and you took me with you when everything went nuts.

You drove us out to a local airport and Alexis flew us out. Alexis even gave me lessons on flying." Kate laughed a huff of breath. "I even know how to fly a plane now." Kate chuckled.

"Alexis flew us to a pair of islands that you had bought and turned into a resort. You had sold everything and bought them and spent millions fixing the place up. You had killed Derek Storm because you had gotten bored of him." Kate paused again and watched what she had just said play across Rick's face, however he remained silent.

"You had this house, boats, weapons and lots of food. There was a huge cistern under the house, you made your own power, had tanks for gasoline and tanks for propane, and we lived there. … In our swimsuits since it was always so warm." Kate paused again.

"Keep going." Rick offered.

"We stayed there for months and I fell in love with both of you. I even ended up pregnant. Morning sickness, grew to the size of a house, my back and feet were hurting. My mood swings and late night cravings that most of which you somehow answered." This time Kate chuckled and wiped her nose with the back of her hand.

"There was a virus that we were running from that started in South Korea and spread fast. Something about invisibility shots and then we flew home. … It's just that we never made it home, not really." Kate told them.

"We must have made it home. ... I mean here we are right? We know that we are a family, just having difficulty understanding how we did." Rick points out.

"Yeah, how do you know?" Kate looked at Rick.

"Because your dream is my dream, except I spent some of my time writing a book that you requested, a book that would explain your mother's murder." Rick offered.

"Nikki Heat." Alexis offered.


	4. Chapter 4

**CH4 (Still May)**

They had put Alexis back into bed together and Kate had followed Rick into the master bedroom and curled up in Rick's arms for the night after setting the alarm on the night stand.

Neither of them said another word and just let their fatigue lull them into sleep.

Kate woke in the morning just before the alarm did and turned the stupid thing off. This getting up even earlier in the morning because of the commute was likely going to be a pain until she adjusted to it.

Kate rolled off of Rick and found her way into the shower. The multi-head with body sprays shower. To say she was awake after that hot water all body shower was understating things a bit.

Stepping back out into the bedroom after a side trip to the monster of a closet where she got dressed and then back into the bathroom to apply a little make-up, finding Rick missing from their bed.

THEIR BED! It had Kate smiling, even if they hadn't made love to each other last night or this morning. It would come when they were both ready.

Kate found both Rick and Alexis in the kitchen watching Alexis eating pancakes while Rick was making more. "Morning honey." Kate kissed Alexis's head as she passed by her and sat down next to her.

"Morning mom." Alexis smiles at Kate.

"Do you remember much before living here honey?" Kate and Rick had found out what they remember, just what did Alexis remember?

"There was an island that we lived on. You and dad went out looking for food and came back with a pig and fish. We spent a lot of time there." Alexis starts off with.

"I'm confused about just how much time. It feels like we spent a lot of time there and yet we didn't celebrate any birthdays. … Except yours mom. Oh and Christmas. Dad wrote you a book and gave it to us for a Christmas present.

It's just that it didn't feel like Christmas. No tree, no snow, no lights, no Christmas paper." Alexis was trying to remember.

"You remember how we got there?" Kate asks trying to be delicate about asking.

Alexis shook her head. "There were boats. You went nuts once mom. We were going really fast." Alexis offers.

That got Kate to chuckle since right after Alexis mentioned it Kate could picture it and she had gone really fast and it had been fun. "Flash." Kate offers, watching Alexis nod her head.

"There was a bigger boat. It even had beds, is that how we came and left?" Alexis asks since doing either was a blank for her.

"You don't remember any of it honey?" Kate asks not believing her, only to watch Alexis shake her head.

"Did I sleep through it? It sounds like a long ways off. The only islands near here that are warm are way south of here. Bahamas or Caribbean maybe." Alexis offers.

"You must have pumpkin, it was a little boring." Rick offered before Kate could say something.

Kate needed to get going or she would likely hit a lot of traffic. Kate was hoping leaving this early in the morning would help with her commute. "Do you remember this Rick?" Kate wiggled the fingers on her left hand showing off the giant rock that was on it.

"That was something else I found out about while talking with my lawyer. We found the sales receipt and the insurance coverage that I have on it. However just like the house and car, we couldn't figure out where the money came from. My bank accounts are unaffected by all of this.

A little over $4 million for the house. Over $100 thousand for each of the cars and your ring that I got you was, ..." Rick was interrupted by Kate.

"Don't tell me, I'm just happy that it was you. I spent most of the day worrying that I was married to someone else or even engaged to someone else." Kate felt all the tension of those thoughts leave her shoulders.

Kate watched Rick use his finger to motion her closer, so Kate leaned in across the counter and found Rick kissing her. "You're engaged to me Kate, so get used to it, because I'm not giving you up.

I don't know how I know so much about you, but I love what I do know." Rick smiled and leaned across to give Kate a quick kiss.

"What my lawyer and I couldn't find was any purchases of these islands or any of the weapons that we seemed to have while on them. Of the boats that were located there.

It's possible that the entire place is owned by Patterson. I may have money, but I don't have Patterson money. Maybe he flew us out there. I do know he owns his own plane. One of those little corporate twin engine jets. … I'll see if I can talk with him later today." Rick offers.

"Speaking of owning a house, do you still have the house out in the Hamptons?" Kate asks, suddenly remembering Rick talking about it on the island.

"I do actually. At least according to what my lawyer found out. Which is strange since I could swear that I sold it to someone named Roy Montgomery." Rick could remember talking about it, plus it was all over a book that he was going to type out since he could see it in his mind, word for word even.

That got Kate to look at Rick hard and serious. "Montgomery is my captain, my mentor, he's been a good teacher. …. You're going to write a book with him in it aren't you?" Kate could see him in it along with the name Nikki Heat.

"And you're changing the name Castle." Kate points out.

That got Rick to show a shocked face followed by a smile. "We'll talk about that after you get home tonight." Rick offered.

"Damn, I need to get moving or I'm going to get trapped in traffic." Kate had delayed to get a few more answers. "Have a good day in school honey." Kate kissed Alexis's head on her way out the front door.

"Finish up and grab your books, we need to get going too. We probably have some paperwork for your new school." Rick tells Alexis, since he had found out where Alexis's school was now after having moved here.

Kate and the guys had gotten another body that morning and Kate found that it was another body right out of one of Castle's books. The whole thing was like living some dream all over again.

The talk with Mr. Tisdale was almost the same. Still she had noticed everything about him that had been noticed before and all of that lead her to start looking at the brother, even if they had nothing to point to it being him.

When the third body showed up Kate gave in and took the guys to go pick up the brother only this time he didn't have time to shred anything. Nor did he have time to get his gun and take anyone hostage. Beyond those minor items, it felt just like the dream.

**It is now one month later (June)**

Kate and the guys got more and more cases over the weeks that followed the Tisdale case and all of them were familiar in some way. Kate didn't know they were coming, except that while they were working on them, Kate got used to suddenly going off on some tangent that the guys weren't following.

Still Kate was solving cases faster than ever before and Roy was noticing all her good work.

Kate was sitting at her desk early while working on her paperwork from the last case when suddenly something was dropped on her desk. "Looks like your boy has made it into the paper Beckett, front page this time." Espo moved past Kate and sat at his desk allowing Kate to read.

**Richard Castle sues Black Pawn**

This was definitely new, Kate didn't remember that in her dream! It got her to put down her pen and start reading.

They obviously didn't have access to the entire lawsuit, however the charges seemed to stem around how Gina was using him and how Black Pawn was a willing follower.

"Playboy millionaire Richard Castle is apparently tired of being thought of as another piece of meat and has listed his editor as the primary source in the lawsuit with the publishing company as a willing accessory. The amount in damages was not known at this time.

All attempts at getting a comment from either Gina Cowell or Black Pawn were not returned. If Richard Castle is successful it may mean the demise of Black Pawn since Richard Castle is their primary client." Kate was reading to herself.

At least they got most of the facts right. It had actually been Kate's prodding that got Castle to file the lawsuit. Gina was his ex and she was screwing with his life and Kate wanted her out of their lives. Rick was hers now and she wasn't in the mood to share.

Kate was still reading about what the paper had written when something else was dropped off at her desk.

Three dozen long stemmed red roses with a glass ruby gathering vase to ensure a stunning display.

Kate pulled the card out and read it. "Sometimes dreams do come true!" Rick and Alexis.

It got Kate to smile and think of Rick the rest of the day. Kate couldn't help but look at the flowers all day long and even took them home with her when she finally left for the day around 11:00 pm.

The next morning Kate was back at her desk bright and early and drinking sludge from the break room, and silently wishing for a better cup of coffee. It soon had her downstairs and walking back for the precinct with her coffee from the corner coffee shop.

Kate even found herself wishing she had seen Castle waiting for her at the door of the coffee shop. It seemed to be burned into her mind. For this reason she didn't even see what was sitting on her desk until after she sat down and tried to put her cup of coffee down.

12 Gourmet Dipped Fancy Strawberries arrive on the very next day. Each succulent strawberry is dipped and covered with chopped almonds, mini-chocolate chips, swizzles and double-dipped. It too had a card.

Richard and Alexis Castle cordially invite you to dinner tonight.

Otto Enoteca Pizzeria

1 5th Ave, New York, NY

7:00 pm

(Alexis's bedtime is at 9:00 on weekdays)

It had Kate grinning wide. Rick had been spending his days re-writing the first Nikki Heat book and promised not to let it get published by anyone until Kate had read it and cleared the contents of it, save for the name Nikki Heat. Kate was still losing on getting the name changed, however she found the name growing on her.

They had also done a lot of talking with each other before Rick filed charges against Gina and Black Pawn. Kate had convinced him that what Gina had been doing to him by making him out to be a playboy who slept with anything that had a skirt and came his way, was degrading and demeaning to his integrity, insulting and embarrassing.

Neither of them expected to win or even go through with the lawsuit. It was more of a message to Gina and Black Pawn that things had changed. Kate Beckett the bad ass homicide detective was in charge now and Gina was his ex-wife and was to stay out of Rick's personal life.

Kate recognized what Gina was doing even if Rick hadn't until Kate had spelled it out to him.

Immediately after filing the lawsuit and Kate had gotten home with Alexis and Martha as his witness, Rick had gotten down on one knee again and asked Kate to marry him. Kate had said yes instantly and had him in her arms, telling him how much she loves him.

It was later that night while Kate was lying in his arms after making love to each other. "Why did you ask again? You already know what the answer was." Kate asks Rick while doodling a finger over his bare chest.

"I know, but the first time was part of a dream, that we still aren't sure if it was or not. This way there isn't any questioning of if I love you enough to marry you or not. And in case it escaped you, I do love you. You mean everything to me." Rick explains.

That got Kate to turn and straddle Rick between her legs while placing her hands on his chest. "I love you too, with all of my heart. And I'm thankful that I let you into my heart. I never did know just how empty my heart was or how lonely I had made my life until you came along." Kate tells Rick and leans down to kiss Rick deeply and start round two.

Kate didn't have time for breakfast thanks to Rick convincing her into some early morning shower fun.

Kate took her bagel and coffee to go mug and kissed Rick like she had just moments earlier and turned to kiss Alexis's head.

"Before you go Kate." Rick got Kate to stop. "It's been a month and I know neither of us picked this house, hell Henry is still trying to chase down where the money to buy it and the cars came from.

Personally I'm kinda hoping it was CIA money. Or even better, alien money." Rick brightened up suddenly.

"What would aliens need with money Castle?" Kate was suddenly sidetracked as much as Rick was.

"To have the ability to blend in they would need money. Money to buy ID cards, rent apartments, buy food, pay for taxis." Rick offers knowing there were lots of reasons they would need money.

"Back to the house Castle." Kate needed to leave and they were too far off track.

"I wanted to know if you wanted to keep the house? … I mean I know it's a long commute for you. Of course thanks to your weird hours, you haven't hit that much rush hour traffic, but still it takes time." Rick wanted to offer to move to help Kate. "And what happens when it finally snows around here?"

"I know you didn't sell the loft Castle, but isn't someone living there already. They signed a lease." Kate reminds him.

"That's all true, however since I didn't spend any money on this house, I have money to buy another and wait while we sell this one." Rick informs Kate.

"Do you want to move?" Kate didn't want to force anything.

"I,... I just want you, Alexis and mother happy Kate. I can write anywhere. Here, DC, Seattle, Bahamas, Mexico, Hawaii even." Rick offers.

That had Kate melting, he was willing to live anywhere so long as she was happy. "I like the house Rick, it's a really nice house. And it's really quiet out here. We're not living on top of our neighbors. Sirens from ambulances, police or fire don't go screaming by. And we have 6 acres of land Rick. We haven't even walked all of it yet.

We haven't even uncovered the pool or used the tennis court yet. If we move again, we'll have to put Alexis in yet a different school." Kate didn't want to do that to Alexis, she needed her friends, even if they were new ones.

"And it's only been a month Rick." Kate was thinking that a month wasn't long enough to make a decision. "Maybe you can spend the money on a vacation home somewhere. A timeshare even, so we didn't leave it empty for months or have to worry about renting it out when we didn't use it." Kate offers an alternative.

"Oooo, a vacation home. … We could do that." Rick's face lite up.

"I gotta go babe, even one minute delay could turn into an extra 15 minute ride into work." Kate leans across and kisses Rick and runs out the front door for her cruiser.

"Are we moving dad?" Alexis asks.

"It would appear not." Rick wasn't sure how he felt about that.

"Good, I like it here, and grams has her own house right next door. Even Mellow likes the house." Alexis points out, since Mellow wasn't afraid of the stairs anymore.

"Vacation home it is then. … Where do we go?" Rick didn't have a clue.

"Someplace warm dad, maybe an island that has a beach?" Alexis offers.

"Hhmmm, Kate in a bikini all day. … Where's my laptop?" Rick started to leave the kitchen in search of his laptop before he stopped in his tracks. "Eerr, school first." Rick suddenly remembered he had to drive Alexis to school. Alexis had talked both of them into letting her do summer school. Rick didn't understand his own daughter. Summer was for relaxing and doing nothing, not more school work.

"Have a nice day in school." Rick offers with a "Thanks dad. … And don't sell the house." Alexis warns him.

"Now would I do that?" Rick huffed out a laugh, however the look Alexis was giving him. "Scouts honor, I will not sell the house." Rick holds up his hand.

Rick groans under his daughter's stare. "Fine I will not sell the house. …. Happy now."

"Or rent it out or turn it into a timeshare." Alexis adds knowing her father.

Rick silently curses. "FINE! … Now go to school."

"Don't force me to have mom hurt you dad." Alexis takes a parting shot before leaving the car and into the school.

"Eerr, she's too smart for her own good. What do they teach kids in school these days?" Rick has been out flanked.

Rick was still sitting in his office a couple of hours later NOT writing his book and was actually looking up vacation homes. Finding it increasingly difficult. Where to buy? Hawaii, France, Barbados, Spain?

"There you are! … What are you doing kiddo?" Martha walks in.

"Trying to find a vacation home." Rick explains looking up for a moment. "Going somewhere?" Rick asks since it looked like Martha was dressed up.

"I have a lunch date and my taxi will be here shortly. … I thought you had a vacation home, out in the Hamptons. That's why you bought it wasn't it?" Martha moved around to look at his laptop with him.

"France dear?" Martha questions his sanity. "And just how many times are you planning on using this house? Less than you use the one in the Hamptons?" Martha questions.

"I,..." Rick hadn't thought of that.

"Pack your bags and fly in a plane for hours so you can use it for a few weeks and fly back. You'll spend all your time at the airport in the security lines." Martha warns him. "Why not just find one that someone is willing to rent when you are ready to go. France one year, Spain the next. Even Alaska maybe, just without the snow."

"Housing rentals! … Thank you mother." Rick was instantly changing his search parameters and was soon on a website called, VRBO part of the Home Away Family, that advertised having over 950,000 listings.

Rick pulled out his phone and sent a text to Kate. "Rental instead of buy?"

It took a few minutes to get a reply. "Not now Castle, I have a frozen dead body."

"Frozen!?" Rick talks to himself. "Like trapped in an iceberg kind of frozen?."

Rick started looking through the listings and found houses all over the place that were available. "It has to be after Alexis is out of school in a few months and Kate needs vacation time." Rick kept the website and went back to writing his book, since he was almost done.

Kate was pulling up in front of the house and was wondering yet again why she has a brand new Maserati when all she drives is her Crown Vic? Someone didn't think this through.

Kate used her set of keys to get into the house and stored her weapon in the safe. There was one more thing about living in a big house, …. finding everyone.

Kate started with the kitchen and finding it empty except for the over being on, she went upstairs to Rick office, where she found him sitting back doing nothing. "Enjoying yourself?" Kate questions as she steps up in front of his desk, only to have Rick toss a flash drive at her.

Kate catches it and looks at it, and has a smile start to form on her face. "Does this mean, …." Kate starts off only to have Rick interrupt her.

"All three Nikki Heat books. … After this I get to start writing from scratch. … It's time to make a choice Kate." Rick points out the deal that they had made.

"We need to talk with my Captain, see if he is the domino we need." Kate comments.

"You know that I love you right, well now I'm also proud of you. Instead of running head long at him, you waited." Rick smiled as he stood up and walked around his desk till he was standing in front of her.

"I've learned a lot and for the record, I love you too. You and Alexis mean everything to me." Kate kissed him back as Rick kissed her.

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"I'm sorry mam, but I can't let you into this building. Who are you here to see?" The doorman stops her, which only pisses her off even more.

"Get out of my way, I'm here to see Rickey and my daughter." The doorman gets shoved aside as she strides into the building.


	5. Chapter 5

**CH5 **

**It is now one month later: (July)**

"How was the case?" Rick asks Kate while he is driving them with Alexis in the back seat to his secret location.

"We found the little girl. …. Her own mother had kidnapped her because she wanted out of the marriage she was in. I'm still not sure if what she did was a crime, however getting the FBI involved is likely to get her into trouble." Kate had simply done her job, how it got processed was out of her control.

"FBI?" Rick asks turning to look at Kate.

"All kidnapping cases involve the FBI, in this case a Will Sorenson was assigned and personally asked for me and my team." Kate tells him.

"Your old FBI squeeze? How did that go?" Rick was really interested now. He wanted to think that he wasn't worried about Kate dumping him and going back to Sorenson, but he was, a little.

"It reminded me of why I didn't move to Boston with him when he took that job. Would you believe that he still thought I should have just dropped everything and chased after him?" Kate crossed her arms across her chest. Even thinking about it was pissing her off.

"If he is assigned to Boston what is he doing here working on your case?" Rick didn't understand.

"Technically it was his case since the FBI had jurisdiction, however he got himself transferred back to New York a couple of months ago." Kate didn't know and finding out he was in town again wasn't good news.

"And?" Rick heard an "and" or a "but" in there somewhere.

"He asked me out to dinner to get caught up with each other. I told him which gutter he could crawl back into and showed Mr. FBI my engagement ring and walked away." Clouds were forming over Kate's head and a thunderstorm was in the brewing.

"Well at least you two solved the case, finding that little girl safe and sound was all that mattered." Rick reminds Kate.

"No thanks to Will. … Idiot!" Kate still had her arms crossed and those clouds were getting ready to break loose.

"I take it he wasn't much help?" Rick questions.

Kate huffed out a laugh. "If it was left to him she'd still be missing. …. Him and his holier than thou attitude and his stupid FBI procedures." Any second now and there was going to be an explosion.

"So what did it take to solve it?" Rick asks.

"Actually it was Alexis that solved it." Kate brightened up a little.

"ME!?" Alexis knew nothing about her mom's case, how did she solve it?

"Your favorite stuffed animal honey is Monkey Bunkey, well she had a favorite stuffed animal too, and it was missing from her room after she was kidnapped. How did a simple kidnapper know to take that particular stuffed animal out of all the ones in her room and on her bed?" Kate points out.

"Only the person who tucked her into bed a night would know. … Her mother who kidnapped her" Rick started nodding his head. "Was the father really that bad?" Rick couldn't see how, to him every father was just like him and his love for his daughter.

"He wasn't mean, he was just, …. Inattentive, not really there for her. … Or his wife." Kate answered.

Rick reached across to take her hand in his. "That would never happen to us." Rick points out. Not trying to do everything his could for Kate and Alexis just wasn't part of the equation.

Kate squeezed his hand. "I know." Kate turned and smiled at him, and the storm clouds seemed to melt away. "Where are we going anyway?" Kate watched the sign for the Canada crossing coming up. They had exited a city called Monroe a little while ago.

It turned out to be called the Trout River Crossing and it proved to be simple to cross, show your picture ID and you were in.

Rick pulled up and stopped next to a tent that was advertising fireworks. "Fireworks Castle?" Kate looked at Rick puzzled.

"**YES!" **Alexis shot her hands up into the air getting Rick to smile wide while Kate kept her puzzled look on her face.

They had made one entire circuit looking at everything that was in the tent. "Ok we've looked, can we go home now Castle?" Kate didn't mean to moan, just that she was thinking of doing nothing on her day off. Besides the cover on the pool had been removed, it was cleaned and had new chemicals in it. Plus she had a new bikini sure to drive Rick mad that she wanted to try out.

"We haven't even bought anything yet Kate." Rick countered. And picked up this multi tube artillery shell box and dropped it into Kate's arms.

"And this, … and this. …. Better make that two." As Rick drops those three multi-shot boxes onto the artillery shell box Kate was carrying. "And these two. …. Oooo, and this one."

"CASTLE, I'm not a mule! And I can barely see where I'm going." Ok, Kate was moaning now.

"I know you like these pumpkin." Rick picks up two and drops them in the carrying case that Alexis was walking around with. "Ooohh and these, and these. … And of course sparklers."

Alexis was soon carrying it around using two hands and getting worried that she was going to dump the contents when Rick started filling up his arms with even more stuff.

$520 later and they were working on getting it all to fit into the trunk of Rick's car. "Seriously Castle? It's going to take us hours to shoot all of this off tonight." Plus pick up the mess!

"O ye of little faith love of my life. Have a little faith, this isn't our first fireworks day, is it Alexis?" Rick was smiling wide while Kate watched Alexis smiling while shaking her head.

"Dad is a master at this mom, you'll see." Alexis just kept on smiling.

Kate was sure these two were nuts, gone over the deep end kind of nuts.

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"Please, have a seat Ms. Lee." He offers Meredith a seat in front of his desk.

"Well did you find him? Where did he take my daughter?" Meredith demanded.

"I'm sorry Ms. Lee, however you have no legal standing when it comes to the disposition of one Alexis Harper Castle. Your ex-husband can take Alexis anywhere he wants and doesn't need your permission. It is stipulated quite clearly in the divorce settlement that you signed.

In fact there are even notes that this was your wish contrary to what your ex-husband offered. You chose money and property over the welfare or condition of Alexis." He informs Meredith of what she must surely already know.

"This is ludicrous; I demand to be able to see my daughter." Meredith screeches at the lawyer she had hired.

"I am sorry Ms. Lee, but all of this was your stipulation when you signed the divorce papers that you yourself filed. You have no legal standing when it comes to the disposition of Alexis, and I'm legally obligated to enforce the conditions of your divorce.

Even if I knew where your ex-husband had moved to, I couldn't tell you. If I did it would be grounds to have me dis-bared. I'm afraid my hands are tied Ms. Lee." He had initially thought he had a big payday coming since Richard Castle had money, but the divorce papers were quite clear and binding.

"I'll find another lawyer, a better lawyer. …. And don't think for a minute that you are going to get paid for doing nothing." Meredith stands and starts to leave.

"You will be getting my bill Ms. Lee. After 90 days if you have not paid it in full, I will file a lawsuit against you to recover the money you owe, plus interest and penalties." He advised her.

"Hhhumpf!" Meredith snorts at him and storms out of the building.

Problem was Meredith didn't know just what to do next. She couldn't afford to stay in the hotel she had here in New York, not without money from Richard , that she had every plan of getting out of him, using her daughter as a bargaining chip.

She needed help fast, or she would need to move out of where she was staying in L.A. Her round trip ticket would get her home, but after that. …. "Damn you Rickey!" Her typical plan was going to work just like it always had, now he had screwed everything up.

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They were approaching the border crossing back into the States. "Castle we can't take all of these fireworks back into New York, its illegal." Kate points out.

"Have a little faith Kate. Bringing perfectly legal fireworks into New York isn't illegal, only shooting them off in New York is illegal." Rick corrects her, though it was a legal technicality.

Alexis however slapped her hand over her mouth to remain silent. Her dad had just told a member of the police that they were going to be shooting off fireworks illegally tonight.

Kate soon found a bundle of illegal fireworks in her arms that she was carrying into the garage. "We better not get busted for this, or I'm never going to hear the end of it." Kate talks to herself stepping into the garage.

It was a little later and Kate was dressed only in one of her bikini's, why she had so many escaped her, as she stroked her finger down Rick's arm going down the stairs. "You coming Castle?" Kate smiled and put a little extra sway into her hips.

Kate was doing laps when. "CANONBALL!" Rick yelled out as he jumped in right next to Kate.

Rick hit the surface. "Sweet mother of god this water is cold! … Why isn't this pool heated?"

"The water isn't cold you big baby. … It's, … brisk, refreshing." Kate counters starting to chuckle.

"We're adding a heater to this pool. TOMORROW!" Rick informs her, which was fine with Kate.

"CANONBALL!" Alexis yells out as she jumps into the pool and surfaces screaming. "My god mom, this water if freezing!" That had Rick looking at Kate with a face of "I told you so."

"You two are babies." Kate informs both of them, however soon finds herself moving over into Rick's arms to suck up some of his warmth and transfer some of her cold to him.

"Come on boy, jump." Alexis splashed the water with her hand. "Come on Mellow, you can do it."

Mellow however was running from side to side while stopping once in a while to bark at Alexis.

"See, even the dog knows better than to jump into freezing water." Rick points out and extracts himself from Kate's arms and climbs out of the pool and grabs his towel.

Kate was the last one out of the pool and found Rick in his office calling up a pool company about what it took to add a heater to his pool. Kate did however stay dressed in only a bikini with a wrap and flip flops for the rest of the day.

Kate actually found herself comfortable doing so. Thinking that she had found her new off duty clothes for when she is home, plus having Rick's eyes follow her everywhere she went didn't hurt.

Kate was watching Rick and Alexis set up for their nighttime display of $500 worth of fireworks while standing just at the open garage door. "You two better not get us arrested." Kate looked up and made a silent prayer.

Next Kate watched Rick and Alexis take a torch using a propane bottle in hand and light them up. Rick went to one end and Alexis to the other, and just a few seconds later three exploding shells that each had three bursts shot up from each of them.

The short display was massive. This was followed by watching them light three multiple shells go up into the air one at a time from each of the six boxes that each had lit.

That was followed by a short delay while they reloaded the artillery shells. "You want to do one?" Rick handed over his torch to Kate. "Just try and light these three fuses next to each other at the same time, and then run." Rick offers and steps back.

Kate got two instantly and had to stay for the third and then ran, and watched her shells and Alexis's shells explode in the dark sky.

This was followed by doing that again a few more times, followed by using the last of the six multiple shot boxes that they had.

Next came lighting 6 cones (3 each) stacked in a row. Next came these colored triangle looking things where Alexis lit two and Kate lit two, and watched them spin and take off up into the air with a trail of color in the night sky.

Next came roman candles that shot colored balls that burst in the air along with some that Rick had planted into the ground instead of holding them inside a tube.

The last things were a number of sparklers that left trails of light allowing you to make temporary patterns in the air. "That's it?" Kate asks turning to look at Rick and Kate with a smile on her face and a twinkle in her eye.

"I believe we were successful dad, we have converted another non-believer into the joys of fireworks." Alexis was smiling wide.

"We are soooo going to spend more than a measly $500 next time." Kate informs them smiling, putting her torch down. Next time they take two cars!

Kate was helping clean up the mess and throw it in the trash. "No mom not the tubes." Alexis stopped her from throwing the artillery tubes into the trash. "Why?" Kate didn't understand.

"Only 4 came with what we bought earlier, the other two came from last year. If we save them we can re-use them next time and shoot off even more shells at one time." Alexis explains.

"Oooohhhh." Kate got it now and all the tubes went on a shelf in the garage.

Kate was surprised to find both Rick and Alexis downstairs, dressed and just finishing breakfast when she showed up. "What's up?"

"You'll see when you leave for work." Rick tells her.

Rick and Alexis were gone when Kate finished breakfast; however she could hear noise out front while retrieving her service weapon.

Making sure that Mellow was trapped inside and closing the front door she found Rick and Alexis walking around with blowers. It was now that she saw the vast amount of tiny bits of paper lying all over, including on top of her car.

Seems there was a price to pay for all the fun from last night. Kate even found a burnt out hulk of an orange colored pyramid sitting on the hood of her car. Kate tossed it into their growing pile and drove out where the drive had already been cleared, waving bye in the process.

Kate and the guys were writing up their paperwork of the latest case that they had closed. A young model found dead in a fountain, killed by her own boyfriend, who thought she was leaving him. It was so tragic and a waste.

Kate took a brief moment to look at this case and her and Rick. Kate knew now that she couldn't lose him or Alexis. They were both in too deep. Losing them would rip her apart, however she also didn't have any worries about Rick leaving or cheating on her.

Kate knew what both Meredith and Gina had done to him, to both of them. Kate knew he would never do to her what had been done to him. Then her phone vibrated.

"Invite Roy and his family over for dinner, we can confront him where he can't run away so easily, and the lawyer for Black Pawn wants to talk." The message said.

"I'll find a day that works for him and tell Gina to shove it!" Kate texted back.

"Oooo , bossy, I love it." Rick texted back.

"Since I have a gun, you don't have a choice." Kate teased back.

"Call if you need me there, it's just paperwork today." Kate texted.

"I have Henry, he is mightier than your gun." Rick teased back.

Kate was smiling when she went back to her paperwork. It was now that she found she needed to fill out something for her paperwork and needed to talk to Lanie to get it. "I'll be in the morgue if something comes up." Kate tells the guys and heads for the elevator.

"Hi Lanie, I need some notes from your files for the dead model case so I can finish my paperwork." Kate tells her entering.

"Sure, let me get them for you." Lanie enters her little office and comes back with her file.

"So how are you and Castle getting along, now that you two are living together in your little love shack?" Lanie was in the mood to tease.

"Castle and I are fine, and a 8,000 sq. ft. home is not a little love shack." Kate corrects her.

"Ooo, touchy. So what did you do to celebrate yesterday? A nice fancy restaurant followed by some wine and some unwinding in bed perhaps?" Lanie was enjoying herself.

"If you must know we stayed home most of the day. We did however drive to Canada and buy fireworks and then set them off out front last night." Kate finally finds what she is looking for.

"Oooo, now we're talking. Illegal fireworks, fired off by a member of New York's finest. How exciting." Lanie teases.

"Actually it was a lot of fun if you must know. I haven't had that kind of fun since I was a kid." Kate could hear the thud of the shell igniting and the boom up in the sky followed by colors.

"Yeah I can see the fun all over your face. Next time you'll have to invite someone over to enjoy it with you." Lanie tries to invite herself next time.

"I'll keep that in mind. … Thanks Laine." And Kate hands the paperwork back over to Lanie and goes back upstairs.

"I need to remember to thank Castle, one of these days." Lanie tells herself.

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Alexis was in the wing with Martha when a taxi rolled up to the front of the house while Rick was with his lawyer and Black Pawn with Kate at work.

"Yuck, Rickey lives here?" Meredith hated it the second she laid eyes on it. It was earthy and surrounded by tall trees. Where was the Spanish style she liked so much, palm trees and the ocean breeze? This place was stuffy, how was she supposed to breathe here?

Meredith paid the taxi and watched it leave after he dropped all of her luggage on the circular drive. She would get Rickey to move it inside for her, she hated heavy lifting. She was an actress for Christ's sake!

Meredith rang the front door bell and waited, and waited, and waited. So she leaned on the door bell heavily this time, ringing it over and over again, and waited, and waited.

This was not possible! She hated it when she didn't get instant gratification for what she wanted, and right now she wanted Rick to open the damn door so she could take him to bed and take his credit card to pay off all her debts.

It's just that there were trees and likely wildlife all over this place, so she sat down on one of her suitcases and stewed while she waited.


	6. Chapter 6

**CH6**

**(Still July)**

Kate was placing the last of her paperwork and thankfully they didn't have another body drop and Kate pulled out her new iPhone2 that Rick had gotten her.

"Heading home now." Kate sent a text.

Kate was already at her car when Rick sent a text back. "Will be home really late. Get ready for an SOS."

Kate chuckled and started driving for home. Problem was she left at a more normal time today so traffic was a little heavy. She didn't actually have to stop on the Interstate anywhere, but it did slow down.

Kate was thinking dinner was going to have to be late, when she started down the drive to her home. Just as it came into view she saw a woman with red hair sitting on one of her several pieces of luggage.

Kate pulled up her car and stopped just short of hitting her. After making sure her service weapon was in place along with her badge, Kate got out of the car. "Can I help you?" Kate approached cautiously.

Meredith was standing now and waiting on Kate. "Who are you?" Meredith sized her up and couldn't help but notice her weapon and her badge. "He called the police?" Meredith couldn't believe it. How could Rickey do this to her?

"I'm Detective Beckett and I live here, this is my home. And you are?" Kate wasn't sure what to do with her.

"Rickey and my daughter live here." Meredith informs Kate.

Kate didn't know what this woman was on. " My **fiancé** and our daughter live here, you must be mistaken. Perhaps I should call you a cab so you can leave." Kate pulls out her phone and walks away towards the front door, which was opened from the inside for her.

"HI MOM!" Alexis was happy to see her, till she saw Meredith behind Kate. "NOOOO!" And Alexis slammed the door closed and locked it and ran for Martha.

Kate was just finishing giving her address when Kate turned to look at Meredith, shocked.

"What have you done to my daughter?" Meredith yelled at Kate.

"I think you better come inside, we need to talk." Kate offers and unlocks and opens the front door and takes Meredith towards where she is sure Martha is located.

In Martha's area they both find Alexis and Martha talking, where Alexis instantly hides behind Martha.

"Alexis darling, what is going on? Who is this woman?" Meredith tries to approach Alexis however Kate grabs a hold of Meredith and stops her. "Release me." Meredith tries to shake her arm lose, however Kate has dealt with worse.

"Martha, we're going to need some duct tape. I think you can find it in the garage." Kate offers.

"Go get the duct tape darling." Martha offers to Alexis who runs out of the room.

"What is going on here? Release me." Meredith tries to break free again and fails again. Meredith wasn't used to be manhandled. She always got her way, she was supposed to after all.

"Chair Martha." Kate offers nodding her head at one of the dining room chairs.

Martha has moved a chair over near Kate and Meredith. "Now sit." Kate shoves Meredith down.

"I will not!" Meredith manages to stand back up. "I'll press charges if you don't release me." Maybe a threat of losing her job would work.

"SIT!" Kate shoves Meredith back into the chair and pinches Meredith's neck getting her to scream in pain as well as hold her in place. "I am the police and this is my home and my family. And in case math isn't your strong suit there are three of us and only one of you. … Now sit down and shut up." Kate releases her hold on Meredith who just sits there.

Alexis comes running back into the room with a roll of duct tape. "Alexis dear, … What the hell!?" Meredith suddenly finds Kate wrapping duct tape around her holding her to the chair.

"This is going to cost you your job." Meredith starts to scream and struggle a little, only to find a strip of duct tape go over her mouth.

"Thanks honey. … You two should go to the living room and wait for me. Meredith will be leaving when her taxi gets here." Kate tells them, and they both watch Martha and Alexis leave. Followed by Kate adding still more duct tape to hold Meredith in the chair.

"NOW, let's get one thing straight here. Alexis is MY daughter. I'm the one that is here when she gets sick, I'm the one that is here to celebrate her accomplishments in school, I'm the one that is here to help celebrate her birthday, I'm the one that is here to celebrate Christmas with her.

I'm the one who is here to tell her I love her and make plans with her for college. I've even fought off a rapist to keep MY daughter safe." Kate pauses to look at Meredith who is still throwing her daggers with her eyes.

"So let's see what you have done shall we. You don't celebrate her birthday, don't send her a single birthday present or even so much as a card. You don't send her a Christmas present. You're not here to help her when she's sick or here to celebrate her life.

You don't even come to see her, since I'm betting the only reason you are only here is to get into Rick's bed and use Alexis as a method to get money out of him." Kate easily remembered what Rick had told her about all of Meredith's other visits and how they went.

"When was the last time you even took one whole minute out of your time to call Alexis to just say "Hi". Tell her that mommy is working hard and that you love her and miss her? … Never have you? Not one single minute of your life is burdened with the thought of Alexis until it suits you.

Well I've got news those days are long over. Alexis is loved and has a family, everything you have no intention of giving her. The only thing you have done is give birth to her, and according to Rick you threatened to get an abortion. Meaning you were willing to kill that precious child before she was even born. So what does that make you?" Kate leans way in to look Meredith in the eye. "It makes you a blood sucking leach. It doesn't make you a mother in any way shape or form." Kate informs Meredith.

"So here are your new rules that you are going to follow. This is my family and my parents are lawyers, meaning that if I find you anywhere near my family again I will get a restraining order against you to keep you thousands of feet distant from it.

And when you step even one inch across that line, I will arrest you and have you thrown in jail. Let's see how that looks on your resume when looking for a job in tinsel town. Quickly becoming the butt of jokes on late night TV. ... A laughing stock, never to be taken seriously.

As for your present condition, you were trespassing on private property. All 6 acres of it, meaning you were not wanted before you even reached the front door.

And since I'm a homicide detective and run down murders, rapists and other scum, most of them armed with guns and/or knives … you are nothing more than a nuisance in my life. You gave up your family when you cheated on Rick, or have you forgotten the terms of your divorce? And unlike you I have all the power and authority I need. You threw yours away years ago.

Think it over Meredith. You are a complete waist of space" Kate tells Meredith and walks out and into the living room where Martha and Alexis are standing.

"MOM!" Alexis is in Kate's arms instantly.

"Meredith and I have had a little talk where she did a lot of listening." Kate tells them.

"You got Meredith to listen to you?" Martha didn't see how that was possible.

"Well since she is taped to a chair with her mouth taped shut, she didn't really have much to say." Kate explains.

That got Martha to place her hand over her mouth to keep from laughing. Kate it would appear was not someone to be taken lightly or afraid to fight for what she wanted. "And what do we do with her?"

"Right now I'm letting her stew and think over her options until her taxi gets here, then she gets escorted out to her waiting taxi and never to be seen again." Kate tells them. "If she knows what's good for her."

It took a little time. "Her taxi is here. You want to go out and have him load her bags? Meredith will be right out." Kate asks looking at Martha. "Go up to your room honey, there is no reason for you to see this."

Kate stops in the kitchen to grab a pair of scissors to cut the duct tape away, briefly considering using a knife, a really big one.

"Time for you to leave Meredith. … I suggest you leave peacefully for your own good, since i would love for you to do something stupid, and remember that you are divorced and gave up your family when you did." Kate points her pair of scissors at Meredith and starts cutting away the tape, except for her mouth.

Meredith ripped the tape off her mouth. "My daughter?"

"MY Daughter is hiding out from you in her bedroom. You've done so much damage to her over the years with your actions that she is literally afraid of you. … Your taxi is here and your luggage is loaded." Kate points the way to the front door. "Now behave yourself or your taxi will be taking you somewhere besides the airport."

They meet up with Martha outside and true enough Meredith doesn't see her luggage. "Remember your place Meredith, you threw away this family years ago. Unlike you I know what I have found and I love both of them and I'm keeping them." Kate takes Meredith over to the taxi. "Watch your head." Kate warns as she shoves Meredith into the taxi.

Meredith wanted to tell this lady off, however she also couldn't fight her. It was slowly dawning on her what she had given up, plus Meredith already knew she didn't have any rights to Alexis short of having given birth to her so that her name is on the birth certificate was all she had left. She had traded in Rick and Alexis for sex and money and this woman had access to both of them now.

"Good bye Meredith." Kate called as she watched the taxi drive away.

"She may still cause trouble Katherine." Martha warns.

"I don't think so, if she was or even had anything to stand on legally she would have put up more of a fight. … I'm betting she's broke and came here to use Alexis to get money out of Castle. She hasn't tried to be a mother to this point, so she didn't show up here to start now." Kate had met women similar to her.

"Alexis is in her room, you want to go get her, while I start dinner?" Kate offered as she walked for the kitchen, still stewing that Meredith had bothered to show up.

Alexis and Martha soon showed up in the kitchen and sat down at the breakfast bar. "Is she gone mom?" There was only one mom to her and Meredith wasn't it. Alexis had what she had always dreamed about and she didn't want Meredith to screw it up.

"Yup she's gone. … This time I don't think she'll be back." Kate stopped what she was doing to reach across to take one of Alexi's hands. "You're mine now honey and I'm not giving you up and I promise to do all I can for you for as long as I live."

Kate could see Alexis blinking back the tears. "Oh honey." That got Kate to come around the breakfast bar to hug Alexis. "I love you Alexis, not just the idea of you or who your dad is."

Dinner was ready and they were eating in the dining room when Rick arrived and they watched him drag himself into the room and fall into one of the chairs.

"You ok kiddo?" Martha looked at him.

"Dad?" Alexis wasn't used to seeing him like this.

"What did she do Rick?" Kate assumed that Gina put him in this mood.

"Let's just say my days with Black Pawn have come to an end." Rick wasn't in the mood to keep talking about it.

"Well serve up yourself some dinner and we can talk later." Kate offers and starts passing some of the food down to him.

"So tell me your day went better than mine." Rick offered off handed trying to brighten his mood. However looking at everyone told him something different. "Ok what happened?"

"It can wait Castle." Kate didn't want to pile onto his already bad day.

"So you want to turn tomorrow into another today. How about you just get it over with and tell me." Rick offers.

"Your ex-wife showed up today." Martha offered.

"My, ..." Rick had to think about that one for a moment. Gina was with him all day, and likely the very last time he would ever lay eyes on her, which was fine with him.

"Meredith." Rick moaned, knowing how big a pain she could be. "I'm sorry I wasn't here pumpkin."

"It's ok dad, mom took care of it." Alexis was happy to have Kate around to handle her.

Rick however did find it strange to be hearing Alexis talking about Meredith while talking about Kate being mom. He was glad Alexis loved Kate and thought of her as mom, just that he felt like a failure when it came to Meredith being her mother. After all, she did give birth to her.

"It was fine Castle, we can talk about it later." Kate wasn't sure how Rick was going to take what she had done and used the information she had on Meredith to her advantage.

Kate was curled up in Rick's arms while Kate was slowly taking her hand lower and lower till it was just a fraction away from her destination. "What did Meredith want?" Rick suddenly asks, which got Kate's hand to freeze in place. So much for her destination.

"Considering the amount of luggage she had brought with her, I think she was looking to move in." Kate starts off with.

"That sounds like Meredith. … Go on." So far everything seemed normal.

"We had a little chat and then she left." Kate hoped she didn't have to spill everything.

Meredith just left? Yeah, like that was ever going to happen and then Rick looked down at Kate. "AND!?"

"Ok, maybe I did the talking and she did the listening." Kate offered. "What did Gina say?" Kate tried to deflect.

"What did you do Kate?" Rick wasn't going to be redirected. One topic at a time. "I know Meredith, keeping her mouth shut about anything isn't her." Rick challenges.

"The duct tape I had over her mouth probably had a lot to do with that." Kate cringes and tries to sink further into the bed.

"And how did you manage to put duct tape over her mouth?" Like Meredith was going to sit there and let Kate do that to her.

"She MAY have been taped to a chair at the time." Kate actually rolls out of Rick's arms and sits up in bed looking down at him. "I MAY have read her the riot act and stuffed her into a cab and sent her on her way." Kate looked down and fiddled with the sheets.

"That woman has done enough damage to Alexis already, I was not letting her into our home so she could do more. … Alexis actually screamed and closed and locked the front door and ran to Martha when she found us out front." Kate defended herself. Meredith was a useless waste of space for a mother.

That Alexis felt that strongly about Meredith was a bit of a shock, though after he thought about it for a moment, it really wasn't. Alexis had Kate now for an example of what a mother should be, and Kate was everything Meredith wasn't.

Loving, supportive and there for her when she needed a mother and still there for her when she didn't. Everything Meredith didn't do. "She'll be back." Rick surmised.

"Probably not, but maybe, and if she does I'll simply shoot her and get Lanie and the guys to help me get rid of the body." Rick liked to deflect using jokes, let's see how it works when it's done to him.

Rick started laughing. "Now tell me about Gina." Kate asks as she moved to sit cross legged on the bed looking down at Rick.

Rick ran a hand down his face and let out a heavy sigh. "Gina and Black Pawn decided to play hard ball. Since I let them turn me into a playboy I had no legal standing, even if I didn't recognize what Gina was doing and why.

Since my contract with Black Pawn was already complete, the final book has been sent in and no book tours are scheduled for it, I severed ties with them and Henry is looking at other publishers that might be interested in a new three book deal. Given that all three books are already written." Rick informs her.

"Your meeting lasted too long to be that simple Rick." Kate was sure he was leaving something out.

"Oh there was a fair amount of accusations and rebuttals taking place, I'm pretty sure all of us lost our tempers more than once. … I may have told Gina what I thought of her for her actions. Let's just say Alexis wouldn't have approved of the words I used, or the number of times I questioned her heritage." Rick gave Kate a half smile.

Kate leaned far forward and down so she could kiss Rick, softly and passionately, before sitting back looking down at his smiling face. "What was that for?" Rick was sure she would be mad.

"You grew a back bone when it came to Gina. … I'm proud of you. … And I love you." Kate gave Rick a weak smile since she wasn't sure how he was going to take this.

"I hate to admit it, but it was mostly Gina's attitude that got me to do and say the things I did. … Oh and since Gina and Black Pawn have decided to play hard ball, Henry and I are going on the offensive. He's looking for a new publicist for me and we're going to hit the TV shows and radio waves and take our case to the public." Rick informs Kate of what was coming.

"New publicist?" Why did he need a new one? Why not just a new publisher?

"Seems Paula was in on it with Gina this whole time. They collaborated together to turn me into a playboy who chased anything wearing a skirt, or slacks, or shorts, or nothing at all." Rick informs her of Paula's contribution.

"I'm sorry Rick, but we'll get through this. … I hope." Kate added the last part softly, barely more than a whisper.

"You did seem to enjoy signing woman's chests." Kate points out his previous actions.

"That's partly why we dropped the lawsuit against both of them. I played along with their plan a little too enthusiastically in the beginning. Young and stupid, that's me." Rick sighed. If only he knew then what he knows now.

"Captain Montgomery and his family will be out to the house for dinner a week from today if he can clear it with his wife. It was amazingly simple to get him to agree. I'm thinking he wants to see the house more than have dinner with us, and since I asked him to bring his wife and his girls, …." Kate let it trail off.

Rick opened up his arms offering Kate to come back down into him, which Kate was only too happy to do. "I'm not sure if you fully understand what you mean to me Kate. My track record in marriages isn't pretty."

"I'm thinking the reverse is equally true babe. When mom was killed I built up walls to keep people out of my heart so I couldn't get hurt again. It wasn't until Alexis and then you over time that I finally figured out that my walls didn't really keep people out. My walls were actually a prison, a prison with only one inmate.

It was sort of the reverse of a real prison. No one was going to get in and while I could see out, I had no reason to try and escape. Till you and Alexis showed me what life could be like outside of my walls.

The walls are still there, I can feel them. I can also see the vacancy sign at the front gate, waiting for me to step back inside." Kate tells Rick.

"Maybe living out here away from downtown is a step in the right direction for you than. Get away from what is comfortable, create a new life for yourself. Feel like you're part of a family, repair the one that was ripped away from you." Rick offers. "Walk down a different path after you step out from behind your walls."

Kate works at snuggling in closer. "I stopped taking the pill about a week ago, I could just never find a good time to tell you."

That got Rick to squeeze Kate in closer still. "And this time we're keeping the baby, and he or she is going to be the most loved baby on the face of the planet." Rick didn't want to lose another one.

"You know since I'm off the pill, it isn't baby making practice anymore." Kate points out smiling wide, and squeals when Rick turns her onto her back and is looming over her.

"Then let's make a baby." Rick can see the smile on Kate's face and he leans down to kiss that beautiful smile.


	7. Chapter 7

**CH7**

**Still July**

Rick answers the door with Alexis right behind him. "Roy, … Evelyn, please come in. Alexis can give the girls a tour while we go find Kate. I'm sure the girls might like to play with Mellow." Rick offers.

"Mellow?" Evelyn asks since she was the girl's mother.

"My puppy." Alexis answers her question.

"YOU HAVE A PUPPY!?" The oldest asks looking at her mother.

"Mom, can we?" The youngest one asks.

"Go ahead you two, we'll find you later. … Just don't hurt him." Evelyn calls to their retreating bodies.

"Kate is in the kitchen." Rick points and closes the door.

Roy with a beer and Evelyn with a glass of wine are sitting at the breakfast bar watching the two of them cook dinner. "It was a little bit of a drive out here." Roy points out.

"Yes sir, it's just something I've adapted to. The kind of hours I put in allows me to miss most of the worst traffic, it usually works out." Kate explains.

"Dinner will be ready in a few minutes. … Shall we find our girls and get them washed?" Rick offers looking at Evelyn.

"With a house this big we may need to divide and conquer." Evelyn offers.

"More likely we just need to follow the sound of the barking puppy." Rick offered smiling.

It got Evelyn to start laughing. "We are doomed for the next few weeks babe. The girls are going to want their own puppy now." Evelyn stands and kisses her husband's cheek and follows Rick in search of their girls.

"You've changed since you found Rick and his daughter. You've done nothing but prove I was right. You're one of the best detectives I've ever seen." Roy tells her. "You should think about taking the lieutenants exam, you could be placed in charge of the entire homicide floor. It's a natural next step for you." Roy offers.

"Be involved in every homicide case. … Like my mother's case for example?" Kate offers and watches Roy pause in drinking his beer.

"It's a cold case with no new lead, until you have any new leads there are active cases you need to focus on." Roy knew he had to keep her off her mother's case, or his deal would be forfeit.

"Tell me what you know Roy. … Tell me what you know and maybe I'll forgive you. Tell me the name of the man who killed her. … You know his name." Kate asks of him.

"There is nothing to tell you." Roy started to sweat.

"You're involved Roy. … You, Raglan and McCallister. Three detectives who are hiding behind their badges. Instead of doing the right thing you let him get to where he is now." Kate pauses and watches the look on his face change as he thought over her words.

"How many has he killed Roy because you chose not to stop him when you had a chance? Just how much blood is on your hands? How much do you want Evelyn and your daughter's to find out? … And when?" Kate asks him.

"He'll kill you Kate if you work your mother's case. He kills everyone who gets close." Roy cautions Kate.

"And you're willing to let a murderer like him make it to the Presidency. Just what do you think he's going to do with it once he makes it there?

Once he has complete control over the FBI and CIA. Kill in the name of National Security. Plus you and Raglan and McCallister become a liability that he can't have. Your life is forfeit, … you know this already." Kate points out.

"You know his name!" Roy didn't see how.

"Yes. … My last question is do you want to help me, or go to prison with him? How much of your soul have you sold to him?" Kate asks him.

"Can we get a puppy daddy?" His girls come rushing in with Alexis and Mellow right behind them.

"Go find your father honey, dinner is ready." Kate asks of Alexis and watches her leave. "Time to choose a side Roy."

Dinner itself was cordial and uneventful mostly since Evelyn and this girls were there. All but the girls stayed in the dining room drinking coffee. "I want to know why. Why you did it. How you can sit there knowing he wants me dead? How you think you and your family aren't going to become collateral damage?" Kate finally asks.

"Roy, what is she talking about?" Evelyn asks since she has no clue.

Everyone was quiet for a time all looking at Roy. "I was just a rookie, fresh out of the academy and I was assigned to Raglan and McCallister. The police force was different back then, a lot different. You wouldn't believe how many crooked cops were on the force in those days. Cops, judges, prosecutors. Not everyone mind you, but enough to make things difficult for the others.

He caught on to what was going on and instead of being a good assistant DA, he decided he wanted the money, so he blackmailed all the dirty cops and others that he found out about. Several refused and they ended up dead. It was a warning. … And he didn't just kill them, he killed whole families." Roy starts talking.

"What are you talking about? … Roy, babe, what have you done?" Evelyn was in shock, she thought she knew her husband.

"By the time I caught on to who was really in charge, it was way too late to do anything about it. And if I talk to one of the bad cops, judges or others, ..." Roy trails off, letting what would happen play out in their imaginations.

"It was weeks after your mother and her staff had been killed that I found out who was really pulling all the strings now. I wanted out even before then, but couldn't. And there was no way out after." Roy pauses again.

"Roy, babe, please tell me that you didn't." Evelyn was caught between being mad and crying.

"Kill her or anyone else? … No, I simply kept my mouth shut and let him keep on killing anyone who got in his way. I had however long since worked out that my days and my families were numbered. So I spent months gathering up all the evidence I could find that would crucify him.

From the first time he blackmailed the crooked cops, to the judges that would throw out any case he selected. The payments those same judges and others made to him so they could keep their jobs, their families." Roy paused again.

"OH GOD ROY!" Evelyn wasn't sure what to believe. She thought she knew him, and here he was, sitting there telling her that she didn't have a clue who he was.

"When I thought I had enough I sent him a copy of everything I had, along with a note that if he ever touched me, my family or you, that my copy, and all the other copies would go public. Ruining him forever." Roy informs them.

"So you blackmailed the blackmailer. That only works if he never gets a hold of all the copies, or calls your bluff." Rick points out.

"Or makes President and has everyone killed in one night, kind of like the night of broken glass with Hitler." Kate offers up.

"Actually I think you mean night of the long knives. It was the night were Hitler carried out a series of political murders. Night of the broken glass was about the start of the killing of the Jews." Rick corrects Kate which earns him a death glare. "Just saying."

"In any event, … I want a copy of that file." Kate informs Roy.

Roy however shakes his head. "He doesn't kill you if he knows you're not trying to work on your mother's case and ruin his future. I give you that file and all bets are off. He will kill you." Roy points out the deal he has made.

"How do you think I know his name, and already knew some of what you told us? The children he has paralyzed for life, the scandals that have plagued everyone that had a chance at challenging him in the polls, or the ones where they met an unfortunate untimely demise.

How he has managed to fund all of his political aspirations over the years without taking super PAC money from people and organizations with their own agenda?" Kate questions him.

Roy hadn't actually thought about that, it's just that he hadn't made any threatening phone calls about Kate for quite a while, plus Kate had said nothing at work or done anything different. That was not like her. If she knew, she would have gone right at him and gotten herself killed.

"It's all going to come out in a book soon Roy, just as soon as my publisher finishes editing it. All the names are different of course, but it's all in there. … You, Raglan, McCallister, judges, prosecutor's, … even the commissioner. … Jail guards who look the other way so that targets who think being an inmate gets them away from him, only to end up shanked in the prison yard, or in their cell." Rick informs both of them.

"Question is, do you want to help us, or do you want to go down with him?" Kate offers Roy a choice.

"ROY!?" Evelyn thought she knew her husband, now she knows she didn't.

Roy leans forward and talks directly to his wife. "I got as far out as I could get and did the best I could to protect you and the girls from him. He has reach and power that you don't understand. I'm not sure even these two understand.

We could move to some little town in Russia and it wouldn't be far enough. Change our names, cut off all our hair, … it wouldn't matter. He already has dirty guys in the FBI that he has bought, he's privy to every secret the FBI and CIA know, he gets weekly briefings so he can stay several steps ahead." Roy tells Evelyn and warns Kate and Rick.

"I want a copy of that file Roy and you're going to give it to me." Kate simply states.

Roy however shakes his head. "And he'll know who gave it to you once you start using it. My family will end up dead." Roy keeps shaking his head.

"You knew this day would come Roy. Today or the day he made president. You're a liability that he can't afford, we both are. He makes president and we're all as good as dead." Kate thought Roy was smart enough to know this, or had his head been buried in the sand for too long?

"Who are we talking about? By president, you mean President of the United States?" Evelyn asks, trying to understand what her husband had done and why.

Kate looks at Roy who simply hangs his head low, not willing to voice his name.

"Sitting junior Senator of New York, William H. Bracken." Kate informs Evelyn since it looked like Roy wasn't going to tell her.

Kate and Rick can see Evelyn's mouth hang open and stare at them in shock.

"Don't be so surprised Evelyn. This may be the States but our government is just as corrupt as any other. Russia, China, Italy, Spain, Greece, take your pick. Democracy, dictator, war lord or any other power.

Absolute power corrupts absolutely. However any unchecked power weakens the soul and our system is just as weak as any other." Rick informs her. "Think about it. … They are caught cheating on their wife, yet they remain in power. They get money on the side that an ethics violation should get them thrown out for, but they remain in power. They condemn black's and call them, … the 'N' word, and yet they remain in power.

Secret service agents spill their guts to prostitutes and yet the people in charge of them remain in power. They redraw districts that make a mockery of what a border really means in their own states to suit their own needs or that of their particular party and shove it down the other party's throat, and yet they remain in power. They use a state road that goes on for miles just so they can add this little pocket of voters way out in the north 40 somewhere.

Some or all of this gets played out in the news, day after day, and yet they remain in power. And when it comes time to vote them out, they get voted right back in again. He may be corrupt but he's MY corrupt politician, so you vote for him.

Vote him back in so he can give himself an automatic pay raise while the country goes into a depression. Rig the rules so that he doesn't actually have to vote to give himself one. He literally has to vote to NOT give himself one, and who is going to do that?" Rick offers up what he thinks of politics in general.

"And you were going to let him be President?" Evelyn stares at her husband. "Let a murdering psychopath become President while you sit by and watch?" Evelyn all but yells at her husband. Evelyn was now sure she didn't know her husband. Her husband wouldn't do this.

"I did what I had to, to protect you and the girls. I got caught in the trap and this was the best I could do." Roy literally yells back.

"By selling your soul to the devil? … What happened to the man I married? The man who made captain so he could prevent shit like this. What did you do with him Roy!?" Evelyn yells back and runs out of the dining room to get away from whoever this man was.

Rick jumps up to chase Evelyn down, leaving Kate and Roy behind him.

"You actually don't have an end game in mind, do you?" Kate asks him and watches Roy shake his head. He was too preoccupied with just gaining evidence over the years, to figure out how to use it, or if he should.

"Who killed her Roy, and I don't mean the guy who ordered her death, that one I already know. I mean who literally killed her?" Kate asks him.

"Would it surprise you to know that even I don't know? … I got wind of the name Rathborne, however all my attempts and finding this person went up in smoke. The closest I ever got was the Latin Kings or the Westies." Roy tells Kate.

"The Westies don't deal in drugs, Rourke won't allow it." Kate knew that and was sure Roy did too.

"True enough, but those two are involved somehow. … And why single out drugs?" Roy asks.

"Bracken has or had money for his war chest to be President. Nice clean untraceable money, how else would he get that kind of money and not be beholding to a super PAC?" Kate questions him.

"What do you mean, HAD!?" Roy questions.

**We now go back in time to 3 weeks ago:**

"Castle, how do we determine just how much of this is real and how much is something we dreamed up?" Kate finally asks him, since she had a deep seeded fear of the answer. All of it was a dream and she was basing her love of Rick and Alexis on a dream.

"We've worked out that Roy is involved to some extent even if he didn't actually kill your mother. Plus all of our research and observations tell us that Bracken is the guy behind this all, or at least as far as you and your mother is concerned.

In today's politics you need massive amounts of money to get your word out and be seen as presidential. The networks charge thousands per commercial, let alone radio, newpapers, magazines, road signs or even highway signs, plus mailings. And he needs people to do all this work for him. Granted most are volunteers who believe in him, however he has to rent one or more office spaces for his campaign for that area." Rick offers.

"Money! … We find his money and take it from him and we know at least that part is real." Kate offers.

"And if that part is real, ..." Rick surmised that if this worked, than the rest of it was just as real and put Kate's mind to rest.

It was hours later when they were sitting outside of a site that offered totally free Wifi connection and connected using a just purchased cheap laptop computer. Kate read off the account number from Rick's book along with the necessary passwords and codes to gain access.

"**HOLY SHIT!"** Kate slapped her hands over her mouth to keep from doing it again. "Now what?" Kate whispered.

"Now we open an off shore account using one of our fake names and addresses." Rick gets to work opening another screen on his laptop. "Now we transfer all the money from one account to the other and pay the fee to accomplish this using the money from the original account. … And done." Rick taps the final key with emphasis.

One hour later they are at another totally free Wifi site with a different laptop since the first laptop was in pieces in a box in the trunk of their car. The same place this laptop was going to go when they were done.

"First we open another account for yet another bank in a different country using another fake name and address, create our passwords and codes and security questions. Now we transfer the money from the previous account to this new one, … and presto." Rick hits the last key.

One hour later and they both repeated it all over again, at a new location with yet another laptop. Only this time Rick opened three new accounts and divided the money up into between the three. "And presto!" Rick hits the last key that laptop would ever see.

One hour later at a new location with a different laptop and all of the money from all three accounts was transferred to another new account using yet another fake name. "And presto."

One hour later and they were at a different location. "You sure about this Rick?" Kate didn't see the need to go to this extreme. They had already moved the money countless times, how was anyone expected to find it and take it back.

"So far all of this money is nothing but bits on a computer, this will change that." Rick points out.

It took them a week to buy and receive all of it. Three locations were local, while the others came from companies in Texas, Tennessee, Indiana, Colorado, and Oklahoma. Each using one of the fake names for the various bank accounts that they had used earlier.

They now had several hundred pounds of 10oz. Silver bars guaranteed to be 99.9% pure silver, along with a whole lot of gold coins shipped out from Colorado.

Rick had wanted to rent a backhoe and bury it all in the backyard, so they struck a deal. Half of it was still in boxes on pallets in the garage while the other half was buried by hand somewhere in the woods of the 6.35 acres of land that they had.

It allowed Rick to create a buried treasure map that was using some code that Rick refused to explain even to Kate, had it laminated and was hanging on the wall in his office. "This isn't even a map Castle." Kate was twisting her head in case Rick didn't hang it right side up, which sounded like something he would do.

"Sure it is. That's the beauty of a treasure map. If all treasure maps were that easy there wouldn't be any un-found treasures out there, and we both know that isn't possible." Rick points out.

"So I suppose there is an 'X marks the spot' on this supposed map." Kate questions still trying to turn her head till she was practically standing on her head.

"Actually yes." Rick smiles wide watching Kate try some of her yoga positions as he walks out of his office. Which got Kate to stop standing on her head and move in close to look for this supposed X.

It reminded Kate of one of those 'Where's Waldo?' posters.

**Back to present time:**

"Let's just say that if he wants his $1 billion plus back, he's going to have to go looking for it, and good luck with that." Kate tells Roy.

"He's not going to just let you keep that." Roy cautions.

"He has to figure out who took it first let alone what they did with it." Kate was smiling.

"And you're trying to tell me you didn't steal it?" Roy asks, not sure what he was going to do no matter the answer.

"I plead the 5th. … You forget, my parents are or were lawyers." Kate smiles, until her face turns deadly serious. "You will hand over a copy of that file and leave nothing out. You've done a lot for me over the years and taught me a lot, so I owe you. However if you don't, …. I respect you, but you're part of my mother's case and I will get justice for my mother, even if I do have to go through you." Kate was determined and without Rick around to stop her from saying something, Kate jumped into her rabbit hole head first.

At least until she saw Rick and Evelyn standing there, likely having heard most if not all of that.

"Give her the file Roy. … The husband I know wouldn't have done this. Give her the damn file Roy." Evelyn was still mad at him, even if she did understand better now after listening to Rick while Kate and Roy talked.

Evelyn loved her husband and wanted the one she married back. They could work through this if he was willing and still her husband.


	8. Chapter 8

**CH8**

**Still July, however the last week in the month:**

Only two men of the team that had installed it were left. Everyone else was gone and these two were still here to simply run them through how the system worked, since it had been going through testing for the last few days.

"These are your new keys for all of the locks that lead into the house, there is one for each of you." At which point he hands one key to Kate, Rick, Alexis and Martha. "The other two are already in the safe upstairs in Mr. Castle's office that Mr. Castle himself locked into place." Getting a nod from Rick.

"There are three primary panels spread throughout the house. One is in Mr. Castle's office, one is in the residence of Ms. Rodgers and the other is here in the kitchen, though technically it is the eat-in area of the kitchen. In addition you have four of these tablets that are portable." He points to the thick and little heavy tablets that Rick, Kate and Martha were holding.

"As you've seen in the testing phase, your 6.35 acres have been broken up into sections, each section has one E-UGS sensor. Each of these sensors is the same ones that are presently in use out at area-51, which doesn't exist, so officially you are the first place to put them to use." The tech smiles, since he found it amusing.

"Each sensor works off of a combination of items. Seismic, acoustic, magnetic, and thermal. As you've noticed during testing, your puppy here." The tech reaches down to pet the overly happy Mellow. "At his present size does not set off an alarm, however anyone larger than Alexis will set off an alarm that will show up on all of the hard panels as well as these portable tablets.

Using these units you can switch between normal vision or infra-red vision that has eyes on every sector of your property using separately mounted cameras on the house and in the trees. Each camera gets its power from a battery that has a solar charger to keep the batteries charged. As you know as big as your house and yard is, there are gaps in camera coverage, however those areas are small.

Each of your keys has a chip built into it, so that even if someone does get a hold of one of your keys and makes a copy at your local neighborhood Home Depot it will not unlock any of the doors since it will not have that chip built-in. Also any attempt to open any of the doors without that chip will trigger an alarm and show up on one of your displays.

There are alarm sensors on all of the doors and windows just like any alarm system, and per your request only that system will trigger the audible alarm and call the police who have been alerted that this house is a blue house, as well as show up on any of these panels" The tech tells them.

"Blue house?" Martha asks since it was a term she hadn't heard before.

"Ms. Beckett is an officer with the NYPD, so when the alarm sounds, instead of getting a single car with one guy showing up, you are likely to get every car that is in the area and available. You may be outside of the jurisdiction of the NYPD, but all police look after their own with a little more enthusiasm than the normal public. They understand the risks that come with the job so this house will be treated just a little differently." The tech explains.

"You have 30 seconds to arm or dis-arm the system by pressing you finger print anywhere on any of the panels including the portable ones. There are web-cams in every room of the house save the bathrooms and closets that you can bring up on any of the panels." The tech demonstrates and ends his demonstration with the camera that is looking at them right now.

"Using any of these panels will allow you to adjust what sections are on and what sections are off. Though I would advise you not mess with any of those settings.

Also all of the camera's downstairs will trigger an alarm that can be monitored on any of the panels. There is also a separate button in each of the bedrooms upstairs that can be pushed to fill the hallway with tear gas and each bedroom door had normal locks that any house would have.

As per your request the space under the stairs in the living room, behind the fireplace has been turned into a panic room. The only access is through a hidden panel that each of you has been taught how to open and close properly. The fourth tablet is presently in that space and is presently plugged in to keep the batteries charged.

You can intentionally activate the audible alarm that will alert the police from any of the panels. Just a reminder, only you four are presently programmed into the system. Only you four can activate or de-activate the system using one of these panels after you have activated it by using your finger print, though anyone can activate the panic alarm by touching that button on the panels." The tech cautions.

"Questions?" The tech asks.

"There is supposed to be a tear gas canister for the panic room?" Kate asks.

"Right, per your request there is a hard point activation inside the panic room that will flood the living room with tear gas if you fear that an intruder has figured out where your panic room is located and that you are in it.

Keep in mind, this is not a true panic room. Save for that panel and your cell phones, you have no contact with the outside world. Also it will not withstand any explosion, a person could use a fire axe and hack their way into your panic room. It also does not have its own air system, or separate electricity. You lose power and it will be pitch dark in there." The tech warns them. "It is little more than a carefully hidden room with a button to activate the tear gas bottle."

"We'll take care of that." Rick tells him.

"Well you four are set, anything human or larger that enters any section of your property will be noticed. Just press your finger to any of the panels after we are gone and you are good to go. If you do you will be able to see us leave until we are outside of your ability to view us. If you get an error code just get it to run a diagnostic like you've been taught and we'll be out to replace any of your exterior sensors, any of the cameras, or even the tear gas bottles. Enjoy your system, it's been a pleasure. … Bye Mellow." The tech pets the all too happy puppy.

Kate presses her finger to her portable tablet just after the door closes and watches the dead bolt on the front door lock and instantly an alarm comes up on all of the panels as they watch the tech guys leave until they are out of camera view, at which point the alarm kills itself.

"Do I want to know what this cost us babe?" Kate asks looking at Rick.

"Probably not, but I'd pay twice that price to keep my family safe." Rick answers.

"I suggest that you take one of the tablets with you Martha when you go back to your separate space of the house. Mine will go by the front door where my gun safe and bowl for my keys is located, and Rick's tablet goes on the wall where the doggie door is for Alexis to use when she goes outside with Mellow." Kate offers.

"Makes sense to me. Remember to use it pumpkin every time you go outside, or we'll be having the alarm going off constantly with the police showing up with us crying wolf far too much." Rick cautions her.

"I'll remember dad." Alexis knew if she didn't do it right she would be in trouble.

E-UGS works on a proprietary closed network, transmitting key alarms from the sensor to the control station over distances far in excess of any other unattended ground sensor available today.

It does not use repeaters or expensive, complicated mesh networks.

The E-UGS ground control station, which pinpoints emplaced sensors, weighs less than 10 pounds and can easily fit on a field table or inside an assault pack.

**The software algorithms provide:**

Discrimination of human and vehicular contacts to minimize false alarms

Anti-tamper alerts if the sensor is disturbed. E-UGS self-report twice daily to the ground control station. Only "live" E-UGS show on the map.

Suitable for environments -25F to 120F

iScout® incorporates the best of our detection technology in a streamlined and low cost package. Like McQ's OmniSense® platform, this new sensor can be configured for seismic, acoustic, magnetic, and thermal detection. Any or all of these detection modes may be combined in the same sensor. In addition to fusion processing within the sensor, a field of iScout® sensors can work together to provide sensor fusion across the network.

Our battery powered, credit card sized iScout® may be customized for a variety of specific applications. Call McQ today to see how iScout® can work for your surveillance needs.

Kate was curled up in bed with Rick after working at getting her heart to calm down after making love to each other for the third time that night. "Do I want to know how much this system that took them two solid weeks to install cost us?" Kate asks Rick again.

"Let's just say that it's a good thing this house came paid for." Rick offers, which was likely more than Kate wanted to know anyway.

"You're right, I don't want to know. … We need to figure out what supplies to put in that little panic room." Kate offers.

"I'm guessing some water bottles, first aid kit, flash light or two, a burner cell phone that is constantly plugged in, some power bars, a weapon of some kind. … Anything else?" Rick offers.

"It's a good start, we can add things as we think about them." Kate offers her opinion.

"I'm thinking of expanding the number of gun safes and spreading them out a little more along with a couple of more burner phones that are kept plugged in somewhere. After that I can't think of anything that would help short of trying to put a tank parked out front.

Or maybe a howitzer, ooo maybe a bazooka, some claymores lining the driveway on remote control, a .50 cal with remote control, …." Rick gets interrupted.

"CASTLE!" Kate had heard enough. Getting Rick to show his pout face not that Kate could see it from her position.

"Has Roy handed over a copy of the file he has?" Rick asks, getting Kate to shake her head.

"Think he's delaying on purpose?" Rick didn't know him like Kate does.

"So he can rat us out to Bracken and keep his deal with the devil so he can protect his family?" Kate asks since she had considered it, even before they had confronted him. "The man I know wouldn't, but the one he is now? … I don't know." Kate never thought it would come to this.

"Alexis doesn't have school tomorrow so I want to follow you into work driving your car and leave it for you. I'm thinking you're safe here and at work, it's that commute between the two that could prove to be a weakness and your car can run circles around your cruiser." Rick points out. "Especially with you behind the wheel."

"How will you get back home?" Rick wouldn't have a car to get back with.

"Car service, when I get back I can go out shopping for the things we need. We need groceries too." Rick offers.

"Fine, just don't be gone too long. I don't like the idea of leaving Alexis and Martha alone, even with the new security system and panic room." Kate asks of him.

"I'll be home as fast as I can." Rick tries to calm any of Kate's fears.

"Has your new publisher said anything?" Kate asks about his first Nikki Heat book.

Rick shakes his head even though Kate can't see it. "I know they like it, but they haven't sent anything back yet. If Black Pawn is anything to go by the first round of editing should show up next week." Rick tells her.

"Has Alexis said anything about starting at a new school with you yet?" Kate was curious.

"Nothing bad, though she actually hasn't said anything at all about it. Maybe I should talk to her." Rick didn't want her to hate her new school.

"Give her a chance babe, starting at a new school can be stressful. Give her a few weeks after she starts." Kate was just glad this business with Bracken was happening with Alexis at home, where they could protect her.

Rick suddenly woke up with Kate pounding on him. "I'm awake, I'm awake." Rick tells her which gets Kate to stop hitting him and watches as Kate leans out of bed to pick up her tablet that she had brought into their bedroom with her.

"Sector 101 shows an alarm." Kate informs Rick and lets him look at the display.

"Might be a stray dog or something." Rick offered. And watched Kate change the screen to camera view by touching one of the icons. "O-kay, not a dog." Rick changes his mind.

"Not unless it can walk on two feet." Kate mentions as they watch, when the camera switches back to map mode and a new sector alarm sounds.

"He's moving to the side of the house." Kate points out and is out of bed and hastily puts on a t-shirt and yoga pants, while Rick scrambles out of bed and settles for just some sweat pants.

Kate has taken the weapon in their bedroom out on the safe and checked her tablet. "He's on the side of the house. Looks like he plans to go for the backyard.

"I'll get Alexis." Rick offers and jogs for her room while Kate jogs for the living room stairs and down.

Kate was joined in the kitchen by Rick who quickly pulled the weapon in the gun safe located there. "Alexis is in the panic room." Rick tells her.

"We don't have time to wake Martha." Kate points out.

"Turn on her camera." Rick offers so that Kate can see if she is still in her section of the house.

"It looks like she is still asleep in her room." Kate offers and switches to an exterior camera. "He's moving up the back of the house towards the pool. … Stay here and be ready." Kate moves across the kitchen eat-in area and into the dining room with the tablet.

Rick can still see her. "What about all the glass in the dining room?" Rick was worried that he might see in and see Kate.

"He probably wants in, but I'll move if I have to." Kate went back to looking at her tablet. Kate soon saw him working the lock not knowing he needed a special key to not set off the alarm. "I'm turning off the alarm. … Get ready." Kate whispers out and puts her tablet on the floor, face up so she could still see it.

Kate had to admit he was good with locks and had the door open in no time. Kate could see Rick in the kitchen with his weapon at the ready and mouthed one, … two, …. three, …. and they both popped out. "FREEZE!" Kate yells at him.

They both watch him quickly reach behind him. "I wouldn't." Rick tells him.

"Raise your hands and get on your knees. … NOW!" Kate yells at him.

Their intruder thinks better of reaching for his weapon and raises his hands and slowly makes it to his knees, where he starts to lower his hands. "Raise them, high! … Let me see you strain to reach and touch the ceiling." Kate tells him. "Cuffs, front door." Kate takes a quick look at Rick.

Rick is soon back with her cuffs from the front door and hands them to Kate.

"Watch him." Kate looks at Rick and moves around to behind their unwanted guest. From here Kate can see the weapon he had tucked into the back of his pants, and places her weapon at the back of his head. "Don't even blink." And Kate reaches down and pulls his weapon out of his pants and throws it for the front door.

"Now, hands on your head." Kate instructs him and with her weapon in one hand and cuffs in another Kate waits for him to comply. Kate has one hand in cuffs when she works to cuff the other hand.

It all happened too fast for Rick to visualize. One second their visitor was on his knees and the next he heard Kate hitting the glass of the outside wall and their visitor was standing, facing Rick with her weapon in his hands pointed at him.

What neither noticed was their visitor slowly curl his feet and tense his leg muscles and while Kate went to get his second hand in the cuffs, he straightened up suddenly forcing his head back as he pressed himself to a standing position.

This action forced the back of his head to connect with Kate's nose, sending her crashing backwards into the glass, while their visitor spun and took her weapon out of her hands and used it to point it at Rick.

It was at this point that Rick heard two loud sounds and watched a surprised look appear on their guests face as his arm holding Kate's weapon lowered quickly and two red spots appeared on his chest, as he suddenly dropped to his knees and fell over.

The next thing Rick understood Kate was getting him to sit in one of the stools at the breakfast bar, while Kate took his weapon from his hands and placed it on the counter.

Rick watched as men in uniform walked in and tried talking to him. He also saw men taking the dead body of their unwanted guest out of the house.

It wasn't until Kate had finished kissing him that Rick started to take in his surroundings. He could see Kate's smiling face just in front of him. "Hi babe, you back with us?" Just past him he could see Alexis and his mother talking with uniformed officers.

"Mr. Castle, I'm police commissioner William Pease Jr. and this is our detective commander Lt. Robert Falk. Are you up to answering a few questions?" Bill asks him as Rick looks around.

It was two hours later and the sun wasn't even trying to come up yet as Kate drove the four of them back to the house in her car. It was a very silent trip home.

The commissioner and the detective commander had asked Rick and Kate a number of questions and had gotten them to take them through each and every step they took from when the woke up to when they called 911.

Their police station wasn't your typical station in NYC. They didn't put them in an interview box since they didn't have one. However even given their size they had a homicide division, patrol division, youth division and a marine division.

"What do you think?" Will asks Bob.

"She's knowledgeable and without trained backup I can't fault any of her actions. Detective Beckett did try to capture him alive." Bob comments.

"You ever heard of anyone doing what he did?" Will asks another question, only to watch Bob shake his head.

"That security system they have is above and beyond the normal, bordering on paranoia." Will adds.

"I did a quick read on her while we had them. She has solved a number of high profile cases. She may have gained her fair share of enemies, and this guy might be one of those. She's also moving up the ladder fast. What little I've gotten, she's a black and white by the book type." Bob hands over the small file they had generated so far on their dead guy.

"This says he is not even 2 years old. Where is the rest of his history?" Will looks up at Bob.

"That's as far back as he goes, before that he doesn't exist." Bob tells him.

Will slaps it back into Bob's chest. "Find him!" And Will walks off.

"You two should go back to bed and try and get some sleep." Kate offers to Martha and Alexis.

Kate gets Rick to sit at the breakfast bar after the other two are gone, and pours out a shot of scotch for Rick to drink. "Here babe drink this." Kate slides it across to him and puts the bottle away.

Kate watched Rick's shaking hand lift the glass and spill a little of it as he drank it down. Kate also saw the tears starting. "Come on babe, let's get you into bed." Kate escorts Rick up to their bedroom and helps him undress and get into bed.

This time it was Kate holding Rick close to her until he fell asleep finally. However sleep proved to be elusive for Kate as her mind replayed what happened over and over again.

She wanted to know who that guy was, find out what was in the car that got him there? Where he got the car from? Why was he there, even if Kate did have a good idea as to who sent him. Just why send him now?

It wasn't even an hour later when Kate felt Rick shaking in her arms when he suddenly bolted up right, ripping himself out of her arms.

It got Kate to sit up and wrap her arms back around him and watch the tears roll down his cheek. "I've got you baby, I've got you." Kate tried to sooth Rick as she hugged him close and kissed any part of him that she chose to.

"Sshhh, you're fine baby, you're fine." Kate tried to convince him, while taking a quick peek at her tablet, which suddenly showed another alarm. Only this one was right up next to the house.

It got Kate to let go of Rick for a moment to reach for the tablet. It told her that very same door as last time was open again, so Kate switched to the camera that covered that area, and started breathing again when she watched Alexis taking Mellow outside and do his business and then come right back in.

Kate tossed the tablet to the foot of the bed and went back to soothing Rick. Kate didn't need to be told this was the very first person he had ever killed. He wasn't doing anything she hadn't done her first time.

Kate could remember vomiting half the night with nightmares for weeks afterwards, and she was all alone at that time. Kate knew she wasn't letting Rick out of her sight for at least the next couple of days. She'd call in sick if she had to.


	9. Chapter 9

**CH9**

**It is now one week later: (August)**

It had been a week since the shooting and the Rye police had come out to ask a few more questions and survey the area a little more, along with where their guest had parked his car.

Kate knew they weren't going to share anything with them about the case. Kate wouldn't tell them much if the roles were reversed. And without a name or the car Kate didn't have much to work with to do anything on her own.

Besides she was more concerned about Rick. He wasn't shaking at night anymore though he did still have the occasional nightmare, which had Kate holding Rick as tight to her as she could get him.

Kate had her own problem however. Roy had yet to provide her a copy of the file he said that he had and as badly as Kate wanted it, she didn't confront him about it while at work. Not that Kate wasn't tempted and give him the tongue lashing of the Century.

"So what are you doing with an entire week off Beckett?" Espo was grinning wide.

"Yeah Beckett, it wouldn't happen to have anything about flying to Vegas would it?" Ryan added his voice.

"What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas." Espo offers.

"Unless it happens to be one of those drive-thru wedding chapels. Those things will get you married before you even know what's happened." Ryan decided to pile on.

However that got Kate's head to snap up. "Vegas, drive-thru." Kate put her forehead down onto her desktop. "OH GOD! … Rick is going to kill me. Please god don't let it be true. Haven't I gone through enough?" Kate moans into her desktop.

"I HAVE TO GO! … COVER FOR FOR AN HOUR?" Kate grabs her weapon, cuffs and bag and runs for the elevator. "Come on, come on, come on." Kate pushes the elevator button for the ground floor over and over again.

Kate parks her car out front in the no parking zone and runs inside the building only to find 4 couples giving each other loving, sexy, I love you eyes, who only had eyes for each other. "GREAT! … This'll take forever." Kate got in line and fidgeted and looked at everything including the love struck couples standing in front of her.

"Next." The lady calls out in a voice that proved she hated her job and was bored out of her mind.

Kate held up her badge. "NYPD, I need to find out if one Katherine Hougton Beckett is married." Kate tells her.

"Paperwork?" The bored lady holds out her hand.

Kate puts her hands down on the counter between the two of them. "I need to know NOW, or I'll come over there and do it for you!" Kate was just an inches away from the ladies face and glaring the worst glare she could ever think of.

"Uhm, … date of birth, …. social security number?" The no longer bored lady asks Kate. And Kate watches her type in all the information Kate gave her.

"That person is divorced, … as of about 2 months ago." The lady tells Kate.

Kate all but collapses on the floor. "Divorced." To Kate it sounded like the most perfect word. Next to being single still. "Divorced from whom?" Kate asks.

"A Rogan O'Leary." The lady offers.

"Rogan O'Leary." Kate repeats the name. She hasn't heard that name in like 15 or so years. "Thanks."

"It wasn't real, it really wasn't real. … So how did I end up married? I'll shoot the son of a bitch if I ever see him again." Kate was pissed as she drove back to the precinct.

Kate was parking her car in the garage. "How did I end up divorced?"

Kate didn't really remember the rest of her day at work. As they had worked out Kate left her cruiser at the precinct and drove her own car home, stopping to fill it with gas along the way, since they would be using it in the morning.

Kate opened the front door using her key and pressed her finger on the tablet at the front door turning it off and then again to turn it back on again. The system had proven itself, it's just that she wished that they didn't need it.

One jerk and his greed had done this to them. For some it might be a deterrent to just let him win, however that wasn't Kate Beckett and she was lucky to have found someone who was willing to support her. Just what had she done to deserve him?

"Hi mom!" Kate got a hug from Alexis who had just finished placing her plate of food on the dining room table.

"Hi honey, looks like I'm just in time. Did you save any for me?" Kate teased and kissed Alexis's head and went into the kitchen. "Hi babe, how are you feeling?" Kate watched Rick barely dish out her portion of the Mexican casserole that actually looked pretty good.

Kate went around the counter and wrapped her arms around Rick. "It's ok baby, you're supposed to feel this way. If you didn't I'd really be worried about you. I've told you before and I'll tell you again. You're not doing anything I didn't do the first time, except maybe for spending a few hours leaning over a toilet.

"I'm trying Kate, honestly I'm trying. I watched this M*A*S*H* show one time. It was about this pilot that was wounded and was one of Hawkeye's patients. He talked about how simple the war was. He'd fly out and drop his load and fly home. Sometimes he would receive damage so he would dump his load early and go back home.

It was a video game to him, not really a war. Not until Hawkeye showed him the civilians that had been bombed by American bombs that fell from the sky and killed this little girl's parents.

If I had used a sniper rifle maybe it would be more like that pilot." Rick offered.

"But it wasn't. It was up close and personal and you got to watch him die knowing you killed him." Kate understood it, she really did. "That guy was likely a hired killer, an up close and personal kind of killer." Kate didn't think she was guessing since a search of his body before the police showed up came up with only a gun and a combat knife.

No wallet or ID or even car keys. Kate guessed that he left all of that in the car, provided that he even came out here with any ID.

"You'll never become like him baby, never. Because you can't. You don't think like that." Kate was sure Rick would never learn to enjoy killing. "Think of it as protecting you family. There is no amount of money you wouldn't spend for them."

"Nothing I wouldn't do to protect them." Rick got it.

"Your security system is the reason we're alive. He might have gotten in and killed all of us in our sleep, never knowing we had ever died." Kate didn't like to think of that. "Come on baby, lets eat and get packed for our week on the beach. I'm dying to see this beach house you say you have."

"Kate Beckett spending the entire week dressed in a bikini." Rick started smiling.

"Only until you take it off of me each night." Kate lifted up to give Rick a quick kiss to his lips.

It was later that night and Kate had just collapsed onto Rick after they had just finished round 3. Kate had been on top and had leaned way back till she was practically lying on her back on Rick's legs as she moved forcing a new feeling of having Rick inside her. It had been Rick and his thumb on her clit that had sent her over the edge.

Now she was lying with her face buried in Rick's neck as she slowly kissed his neck and worked on nibbling on his ear and forcing her tongue into his ear. "It's been a long time since I've squirted. What you do to me, ..." Kate didn't believe how far into her heart and life Rick really was. "I love you so much baby, so very much. I'd never survive losing you, as much as losing my mother hurt me, losing you would be even worse."

Kate suddenly found herself on her back with Rick forcing her into the bed with him still inside her somehow after that. "You're not losing me, not ever. I feel like I've waited my whole life to meet you, and we'll just have to figure out more interesting ways to get you to squirt again.

Maybe tying you down to the bed will work?" Rick questions. Then he saw the look on Kate's face. "You want to be tied to the bed, don't you?"

"Rick." Kate shakes her head.

Rick sits back and lifts Kate up with him and holds her close and can feel her breasts pressing into his chest. "Kate my love. I love you, you're my fiancé, we're going to be married and I'm your lover. I only want to make you happy and be the very best lover I can be. As your husband it is my responsibility to see to it that you are happy.

So I ask you, do you want to be tied to the bed so I can have my way with you till you scream for me to stop?" Rick stared into her eyes. "I'm not afraid Kate, talk to me." Rick placed his hands on each side of Kate's face.

Had she really found someone who would, …? Kate leaned far forward and whispered into his ear, and when she was done Kate pulled back and searched Rick's eyes and prayed that she hadn't frightened him.

"Come with me." Rick took her hand and took the two of them, still naked down to his study.

Rick turned on his laptop and started searching. "Pick one." Rick offered.

Kate looked at him wondering if he was serious or teasing her, still Kate leaned over his shoulder and pointed and watched Rick order it using his credit card. Only to watch him do another search. "Which one?" Rick asked her.

Kate pointed to one and told him he would need to order this too, and watched him buy them. "Anything else?" Rick looked over his shoulder. "Tell me Kate there is nothing I will not do." And Kate watched him buy three more things that she only dared whisper into his ear.

"Rick, are you sure?" Kate couldn't believe this. Kate soon squealed when Rick pulled her down to sit in his lap.

"You don't understand, my love. If these things were already here we would already be using them. … Now what else?" Rick looked into her eyes.

"There is a tattoo that are meant to complement each other, so that when joined, ..." Kate trailed off. What she was talking about was permanent, it would bind them forever. It would scare Rick away and she couldn't risk that.

"Keep talking Kate." Rick tells her.

"Rick you don't understand, the tattoo's go, ..." Kate leaned in and whispered into his ear.

"Tell me about them Kate, tell me what makes them special to you?" Rick looked up into her eyes.

"They're mystical or religious tattoos if you prefer, said to be from a time before writing. They are two separate tattoos, one for the male and one for the female and when the two tattoos are joined in, … in the act of sex, the tattoos combine and complete, …. It is supposed to bind the two together and make them one." Kate tries to explain. It was something she had heard about during her stay there.

"Where do we get them?" Rick asks, getting Kate to suck in her breath. He couldn't be serious, could he? "Where Kate?"

"There is this little shop in, ..." And Kate leans in and whispers its location.

Rick lifted Kate up out of his lap and returned to his laptop and started searching.

"How long does it take to get them?" Kate knew anything that was likely this complex would take days.

"Rick?" Kate shook her head

"One full week it is then." Rick turned back to his laptop. "Alexis will probably kill us if we leave her behind and we need a hotel room." Rick started typing.

"There we now have three 1st class tickets to Kiev for tomorrow at 21:50 with a stop in Zurich and land in Kiev at 17:00. We leave at 10:10 from Kiev and return to JFK at 15:50 with another stop in Zurich with a hotel room for 3 at the Hyatt Regency, diplomatic suite." Rick turns around and smiles at Kate.

Kate could only stand there with her mouth hanging open while staring at Rick. What had he done!?

"Rick if we do this, ..." Kate trailed off not believing any of it. And soon found herself back in Rick's lap. "Rick, this is permanent, you don't get it one day and wash it off. We do this and we'll be bound to each other, permanently."

Rick stood up and took Kate in his arms. "We are doing this Kate, all of it. And everything else should be here waiting for us or only a few days behind us when we get back."

Kate didn't know to laugh, cry or shout for joy. Had she actually found someone who was her match for her libido, her flair for doing the unusual, someone who would be there for her for all time? Kate decided to simply kiss him while trying to crush Rick in her arms all the while thinking about what was to come which only managed to start getting her wet.

And there was only one thing to do about that, so Kate reached down to wake little Rickie and find herself spread out on Rick's desk as he took her and screamed his name.

Come morning Alexis and Martha were informed of the change in plans. "We're not going to the Hamptons?" Alexis was a little bummed since she wanted to hit the beach and swim in the pool.

"We're going to go to Kiev for the week instead." Rick confirms.

"Really?" Alexis kind of sounded interested.

"что правда." Kate tells her.

"You speak Russian mom?" Alexis was excited now, and watched Kate nod her head. **"COOL!"**

"You sure you'll be alright here mother, alone?" Rick was a little concerned for her.

"This is the safest house in New York kiddo, why would I not be alright? And I have the key to the house in the Hamptons. I can get the car service to take me there." Martha knew she would be fine. "You three go, have your adventure, do it while you're still young."

"You be careful Martha. If there was one there may be another and losing you is going to hurt all of us." Kate was learning to like Martha.

"I'll be fine dear, who would think that I know anything worth bothering with me for?" Martha knew she didn't know much.

Going through TSA security was just as Kate expected, one giant pain in the, …. And the best part of having first class seats for a 12 hour flight, they were comfortable enough to actually get some sleep in.

The airport in Kiev was just like Kate remembered, as was the transportation options to get to their hotel. "Tell me again why we came to Kiev?" Rick whines in Kate's ear so that the driver couldn't hear him. Which got Kate to moan.

And the second they got to the hotel. "Maybe Kiev won't be so bad after all." Kate was looking around as they walked up to the front desk.

"Welcome to the Regency Mr. Castle, please enjoy your stay and let us know if there is anything we can do."

Top-floor, 140-sq.-metre suite features the latest in luxury and comfort, including king bedroom, dining and sitting areas, kitchenette, guest bath and marble master bath with personal TV and separate tub and shower. Modern decor and stunning views of the Mikhailovsky Cathedral complement amenities such as Bang &amp; Olufsen CD/DVD home theater and wireless Internet access. Regency Club extras included.

"WOW!" Kate leaves her bag behind as she steps into the room. "My room didn't look anything like this when I was here." Kate moves over to the windows. "And this view!"

Alexis steps up to Kate. "It's nice." Getting Kate to look at Alexis like she was an alien from outer space or something. "I'm going to go, … Where do I sleep?" Alexis only saw one bedroom with one big bed.

Rick takes the sofa apart and pulls out the sleeper sofa. "I'll be glad when I'm old enough to get my own room." Alexis comments, getting both Kate and Rick to look at Alexis and suddenly see for a moment a 16 year old Alexis.

"We need to get going Castle, we only have four more days after this before my vacation time ends." Kate warns him.

That got Rick to open his wallet and hand over one of his credit cards to Alexis. Just before he hands it to a smiling Alexis he yanks it away from her willing hands. "Do not leave the hotel, and keep your eyes open and be careful. This is a nice hotel but that doesn't mean everyone in it is." Rick cautions Alexis before Alexis snatches the credit card out of his hand.

"Thanks dad." Alexis was smiling, and as soon as Kate and Rick were out the door Alexis pulled out her laptop from her back and connected to the free Wifi service.

It took Kate a number of minutes to try and figure out where she was and where she knew they wanted to go. "I don't know how Castle, but ien Levin is only just down this street a little ways." Kate turned to look at Rick with a shocked and amazed face only to see Rick smirking. "Knock it off Castle." Kate shook her head and started walking forcing Rick to catch up.

To Castle's way of thinking, ien Levin looked very much like a Russian should. Like right out of the movies that portrayed Russians, kind of Russian. He looked like he shaved his head on purpose, had a giant mustache that bordered on being a handle bar mustache, along with the clothes that he word told Castle a lot about this guy before he had even said a word.

Kate was doing all the talking and since it was all in Russian, Castle elected to keep his mouth shut.

"He has the time to start tonight. He wants to hear it from you Rick that you really want this." Kate tells Rick.

Rick chooses to look right at ien. "I love Kate with every piece of my heart and soul. Kate has explained a little about what this tattoo is to her and that's all I need to know. So in a word, да." Rick tells him.

That was enough to get Kate to kiss Rick quickly for it.

The next thing they both know is that their pants and underwear are gone and the area is cleaned and then shaved completely bald.

Kate soon found herself in a chair with her legs spread wide in a manner that reminded her of what pregnant women likely went through to deliver a baby. It also reminded her of being inspected during one of her visits to her OBG/YN.

It started off feeling like someone was tickling her, just that the longer it continued it slowly turned into pain. It also had Kate remembering what, why and who she was doing this for. If she dwelled on her position, naked from the waist down, her legs spread wide with a stranger who had his head buried between her spread legs, it was extremely embarrassing.

Two hours later and he was done for the day with her, while his helper her took Kate away to have the start of her tattoo tended to and instructed what to do tonight before coming back in, in the morning for another round.

Rick had been given a pill before ien started work on Kate. Now it was Rick's turn in the chair with his legs spread wide and his discomfort was even worse since he had to be hard for ien to apply the first of several sessions. It was worse because to get him that way and keep him that way, it was necessary for Kate to keep him that way.

Like Kate it started out filling like a light stinging sensation. Kind of like what you feel when your leg goes to sleep on you and you are waking up, till it slowly turned into something closer to pain.

Like Kate, Rick was taken in back and told via Kate, what to do for tonight before returning in the morning. "How many times do we have to do this?" Rick asks.

"It's complex Castle and ien is an artist not just some guy who does tattoos in a corner shop." Kate tells him.

"I'm not questioning his skill Kate." Besides Rick had looked him up before flying out here and found that most placed him in the top ten of the best artists that simply used human skin as their canvas, and that he only worked with black ink. "I'm just curious how many sessions are required, now that he has started." His earlier estimate may have changed.

Kate asked him in Russian and turned to Castle. "Two sessions each day for 4 days." Kate translates.

"после я сделал , никакого секса в течение месяца, чтобы позволить этому заживать." ien suddenly tells Kate.

"What did he say?" Rick saw the look on Kate's face.

"He uhm, … he said that after he was done, … that we couldn't have sex for a month to let it heal." Kate knew there was a price to pay, besides the actual money part, but one whole month of not making love to Rick!?

"**A MONTH!?"** Rick was wondering if Kate brought her gun.


	10. Chapter 10

**CH10**

**It is now one week later: (still August)**

The dressings that were in place caused both Rick and Kate to walk slowly and awkwardly back to the hotel. "What happened to you two?" Alexis watches both of them sort of waddle into the room.

"Long story punpkin, let's call it a rash and leave it at that." Rick offered as he sat down with a little effort onto the sofa with Kate all but crashing next to him.

"Have you eaten honey?" Kate asks her.

Alexis pointed to the cart that was left behind from room service. "If you want something they are still open." Alexis hands over the list.

Rick and Kate went back the next morning and came back to the hotel and still found time to take Alexis out and see the sights over the next four days.

_**Trip round Kiev by retro-train**_

If you don`t want to go somewhere too far trip round Kiev by train is your choice. It`s your chance to view city from inside just for a little bit more then 2 hours, to see its suburb and the most distant areas which are always hidden from tourists so that means that it is perfect for you!

**Planetarium **The sky and the stars

Here is a wide range of activity for guests of the Planetarium. For instance, you can visit absolutely amazing spherical cinema-hall, you can be a participant of discussion, visit an open lecture about black holes (for example) or even be a part of astroschool!

**Landscape Alley **Art Fairytale

It's like to get into a fashion fairytale with art illustrations, because you 'll find here not only the incredible characters of futuristic children's playgrounds, but also variety of modern sculptures and art installations. During the day it 's a great spot for family activities and in the evening at sunset the romantic atmosphere comes here.

**Mariinsky Park**

The most famous part of the park is part with an old fountain. A lot of good events are usually taking place in the heart of the park on a summer ground. And if you are accompanying one pretty lady you definitely ought to show her a Bridge for romantic couples.

M. M. Gryshko National Botanic Garden

One of the most popular green spots in Kiev. Of course, this place is worth to visit during spring-summer season when everything is in its blossom and luxuriant vegetation is pleasing to the eye but it is pretty good in winter too and can give you a feeling of dark forest.

The walk from the car to their gate to go home was slow and torturous. "Remind me again why we did this?" Rick offers just as he sits down in his 1st class seat, yet again.

"Shut up Castle." Kate moaned as she sat down, as best she could.

The tattoo covered not just their private parts but the area around them as well. Kate knew that when she wore a bikini from now on her tattoo would partially show since it expanded out to cover part of her upper thighs. It was the part where it included her ass cheeks that was also the hard part.

They were both wearing a medical cover to help the area heal without infection. They had their instructions for what to do over the next few days after they took the medical cover off after 24 hours. As well as reminded to not engage in sex for at least one month to better allow the area to heal properly.

As well as to inspect each other to prevent infection or any adverse effects to the ink that was used.

"You get to lounge around home after this Castle, while I have to go back to work." Kate shifted in her seat to find a better position.

"DARLINGS!" Martha met them at the front door. "What happened to you two?" Martha watched the two of them walk to the door looking more like Frankenstein's monster.

"We're find mother, we just need a vacation from our vacation." Rick tried to make a joke out of it.

"It looks more like the two of you could use a good massage than anything. … And how are you dear?" Martha hugs Alexis.

"I'm great grams, I got to see Kiev and mom has started teaching me Russian." Alexis responds excitedly.

"That's great dear. … You didn't tell me you could speak Russian." Martha mildly chastises Kate.

"I don't have much reason to use it, I'm kinda hoping that teaching Alexis will help me not to forget it." Kate knew teaching Rick would be harder.

"You'll do great dear. … Oh I almost forgot there were a number of deliveries for you two while you were gone. Your security system has been rather active the last two days." Martha tells them and guides them to the dining room table where she has piled them up.

"Amazing, it looks like all of it is here already." Rick offers.

And we can't use any of it for a month. Kate literally moans getting Rick to look at her questioningly.

It got Kate to lean in and whisper into his ear. "One month." Which got Rick to moan, just how was he supposed to keep his hands to himself for one whole month. Not knowing Kate was thinking the same thing.

"What's this?" Rick holds up a softer package that was in a plastic FedEx bag. "This one is addressed to you." Rick hands it over to Kate.

Kate doesn't risk sitting in the chair so works at opening it while standing. "Scissors or a knife would be good." As Kate struggles with the plastic, and moves into the kitchen to find something sharp.

"It's the file!" Kate opens it and starts sorting through all the stuff that was in it.

Pictures, newspaper clippings, documents, photo copies, receipts, addresses. "We need to make sense of this before we can use it." Kate offers.

"We need to start dinner since none of us have eaten anything all day, unless you count what was on the plane as food." Rick mentions.

"The food on the plane wasn't that bad Castle." Kate contradicts him.

"Says the lady who has lived on take-out. I mean real food, not something that was frozen and then flash heated on a plane." Rick didn't believe her.

Rick and Kate had peeled the covering off of themselves and allowed the other to inspect their tattoo to check for any items that they were warned to look for. Finding nothing they chose to stay naked and let their tattoos breathe and spread out the file Montgomery had sent them.

"If I read this right, the guy that I killed was someone named Dick Coonan. Says that he used to be in the military and was involved with the first gulf war." Rick points out.

"He's got someone to take his place by the name of Hal Lockwood. He doesn't appear to have any association with your Dick Coonan, except being employed by Bracken. Even in this file his history only goes back 2 years." Kate mentions as she lays out everything on Lockwood.

"Coonan however does have a history. His brother is, … or was involved with the westies. Says here he was stabbed to death and give you one guess who like to kill using a knife?" Rick offers.

"He planned on killing us all silently as we slept." Kate surmises. "It really was him or us babe. It may be revolting, but you did what you had to." Kate gets on all fours to reach across to kiss Rick.

"Better not start kissing me very often, and we should probably find something big and comfy to wear. You are just too damn sexy to ignore for long." Rick tells Kate and kisses her again.

Kate didn't want to. It had already been a week since they had made love to each other and now they had to hold off for another month. Kate could already feel the need to have Rick.

Now dressed in something baggy. "Bracken has been busy." Rick comments and reads from the list he has created.

Johanna Beckett (Stabbed once in the kidney and stabbed randomly to cover up the precision by Coonan)

Diane Cavanaugh (Stabbed once in the kidney and stabbed randomly to cover up the precision by Coonan)

Jennifer Stewart (Stabbed once in the kidney and stabbed randomly to cover up the precision by Coonan)

Scott Murray (Stabbed once in the kidney and stabbed randomly to cover up the precision by Coonan)

John Raglan (Shot with a .338 sniper rifle through the heart from long range by Lockwood)

Gary McCallister (Neck is slashed by Lockwood)

Laura Cambridge (Strangled to death from behind by Maddox?)

Robert McManus' son (Strangled to death and staged to look like a suicide?)

Alex Hooperman (Neck slashed by Markov)

Reese Spandau (Neck slashed by Markov)

Morgan Corday (Neck slashed by Markov)

John Killer (Neck slashed by Markov)

Two unnamed drug dealers (Necks slashed by Markov)

Harden (Neck is slashed by Markov)

Jason Kochler (Induced a heart attack)

Jason Marks (Shot twice in the chest by Vulcan Simmons)

"And then there is the list that Roy suspects have been killed by Bracken." Rick adds.

Jack Coonan (Stabbed once in the kidney and later stabbed randomly to cover up the precision by Coonan)

Jolene Granger (Tied up on the floor and strangled to death)

Chuck Ryker (Shot once in the head by Lockwood)

"Nineteen dead people so he can be President. How many did Jack the Ripper kill?" Kate couldn't believe the someone this homicidal could ever make President.

"A minimum of 11 actually, more than that can't be documented to him even if some people think he can be linked to more." Rick offers up from memory.

"It's enough to make me wish I wasn't human." Kate had seen her fair share of death by homicide.

"It's part of what makes you the best homicide detective in New York. Your heart. You care. It's part of why I love you so much." Rick tells Kate while smiling at her.

"Enough to overlook the pain?" Kate still didn't believe Rick had done it, she was going to love him forever for this. Like she had a choice now.

"It's only a month. … And one week. We still have years together. … One incredibly long month, but still just one month." Rick wasn't sure how he was going to survive the month.

"Plus did you know that in the movie "Wavelength" one of the characters suggests that space travelers have maps that say 'Beware Head Hunters' associated with our system, in case anyone was stupid enough to want to come here?" Rick offers up.

"Why am I not surprised that you would know that." Kate smiled while shaking her head.

"You also realize that if Bracken sent Coonan to kill us, he knows something from someone, somehow." Rick comments as a warning.

"And since he failed he will have to send someone else." Kate adds. "We need to keep our eyes open." Kate offers.

It was only three days later when Kate came dragging through the front door and pressed her finger on her tablet to turn the system off and then again to turn it back on, followed by stowing her weapon in the safe and dropping her keys and cuffs onto the table. Now comes the hard part, … finding someone, anyone.

Kate could smell something was in the crock pot which told her he was here since his car was in the garage, leaving her next stop being his study. However Kate only made it as far as the door where she could hear his hands flying over the keys, telling her that he was writing. Nikki Heat #4 here it comes.

Since Mellow didn't greet her at the door, Kate headed for Alexis's room. "Hi mom!" Kate found Alexis in her room sitting on the floor playing tug of war with Mellow. Kate moved over to pet Mellow and kiss Alexis's head.

"Hi honey, how long has your dad been typing?" Kate asks, since the crock pot was likely done by now.

"All day mom, he's been really boring." Alexis however was happy to have Mellow to play with.

"Well how about you meet me in the kitchen and we'll eat without him." Kate offered and went to her bedroom and into the bathroom.

It was just one of the things she and Rick had to do a lot of daily. They both had to wash and moisturize their tattoo 5 times a day and Kate had done it in the ladies room twice each day at work.

Kate was done and put on something baggy to give her tattoo some much needed air.

"Castle? …. CASTLE! …. **RICK!"** Kate yelled his name and finally got his attention.

"Please tell me you haven't forgotten to wash and moisturize your tattoo." Kate didn't want to have to shoot him.

"Once this morning, once at lunch as I put the crock pot together, ..." Rick opened his mouth to tell Kate when the next time was but shut it when he couldn't remember when that was.

"Go wash and moisturize Castle." Kate started to leave. "NOW CASTLE!" Kate wasn't that mad. She wanted them doing it 5 times a day though ien had said 3 to 5 times per day. So today Rick would be doing it 4 times. She did however notice that he was already wearing something baggy.

Turned out Martha was out so it was just the three of them. And after dinner Rick went back to typing while Kate and Alexis went into the family room to watch a movie. However Alexis didn't make it to the end and ended up asleep with her head in Kate's lap.

Kate let the movie end and just sat there stroking Alexis's hair while feeling her heart spread out all over and Kate thought about how much she loved Alexis. "I really wish I had given birth to you honey, or at least while you were really young. I just want to take all that pain away. … I just wish."

**It is now one month later: (September)**

Kate had left work early and found herself smack in the middle of hell. She was sitting on the Interstate in a Maserati that could do 177 and yet at the moment her dash said ZERO! "Ok, now I'm beginning to hate living an hour from work." Kate moaned.

Kate pulled out her phone and sent Rick a text telling him she was stuck in traffic and wouldn't be home anytime soon.

It was a few minutes later when her phone vibrated telling her that Rick had likely responded to her text. "Get off when you can, Interstate closed." Kate cursed and tossed her phone into the passenger seat.

"Off, right." Kate leaned forward till her forehead was on the steering wheel. "I should have just stayed late." Kate knew why she had left early. Kate had her heart set on making love to Rick the second she got home. It had been one whole month and one week since Rick had been inside her and Kate was ready to go mad if Rick wasn't inside her soon.

It took Kate an hour for her to get off the Interstate and found herself moving from one red light to the next, but at least she was moving.

It ended up taking Kate a little under 3 long miserable hours to get home. Rick and Kate had been texting since she got off the Interstate and Kate found Alexis sitting at the breakfast bar while Rick was cooking.

"Hi mom." Alexis was happy to see her and since Mellow was bouncing at her feet, he was happy to.

Kate hugged Alexis. "Hi honey, so much for leaving work early today." Kate kept her arms wrapped around Alexis and tried to get Alexis to melt into her. Kate kissed Alexis's head and let go of her.

"Do I have time for a shower?" Kate asks looking at Rick.

"You've got about 15 to 20 minutes." Rick advises Kate.

"That might be enough time." Kate ran upstairs and started shedding clothes the second she made it to the bedroom door and was naked and in the shower in seconds.

Kate started with her breasts until her nipples were hard and cared for, followed by moving her fingers to her folds allowing an occasional finger to find its way inside her.

Finally screaming with one hand supporting her up against the shower wall and two fingers of her other hand buried inside her. It had her week in the knees and it was all she could do to keep her legs from buckling under her.

Kate was dry and her hair still a little wet and feeling better, even if she wasn't even remotely satisfied.

Kate had made it downstairs to find Rick and Alexis sitting at the dining room table serving up food. "Where's Martha?"

"Mother has a date and will be home, … who knows." Rick tells her.

It got Kate to smile. For her age Martha was certainly active or selective for when she was active. It felt good to have an older woman around, she wasn't Kate's mom, but she was Rick's.

"Do anything exciting at work today?" Rick asks.

Kate thought about it for a moment. If by exciting did he mean trying to get her panties dry half the day, than yes, it was exciting. "Just paperwork from the case we closed yesterday."

"The body in a garbage shoot?" Rick asks.

"A wife and a **fiancé**." Kate nods her head.

"So which one killed him?" Alexis asks.

"Neither actually, even though the **fiancé** knew about the wife and two kids. He was trying to prove that one company was dumping hazardous waste out to sea instead of disposing of it properly. The owner found out and killed him.

And it turns out the **fiancé** really wasn't since he was playing her to get information out of her." Kate boils it down to something simple.

"Sounds weird mom, but at least they aren't polluting the planet anymore." Alexis was happy for that, she didn't want to grow up in the middle of pollution.

Kate and Rick were cleaning up after dinner. "Come on Mellow." Alexis took off running.

"God I thought she'd never leave." Kate attacked Rick in the middle of the kitchen. "I want you babe and I want you NOW!"

"Right after I load, ..." Rick is interrupted when Kate takes his hand and drags him upstairs and kicks the bedroom door closed and attacks his lips with hers, while trying to peel his clothes off of him.

"It has been soooo long babe." Kate moved down to biting his nipples.

Kate squealed when Rick suddenly picked her up and carried her over to the bed and laid her down while climbing in over her, kissing as he went.

Not long later Kate was screaming while running her hands through his hair as Rick found his face firmly planted between her legs as she squeezed her legs together.

"I want you baby and I want you now." Kate grabbed his hair and dragged him by his hair till he was pushing her down into the bed and could soon taste herself on his lips and licked them clean.

"Please Rick, … I need you baby." Kate lifted her legs and wrapped them around his back and hooked them in place using her ankles, feeling Rick tease her and he just brushed to tip of him over her opening, getting himself wet by running himself through her folds.

"Stop teasing Rick. … PLEASE!" Kate had been dreaming about this all day, and felt it to the core of who she was when Rick suddenly buried himself inside her.

Rick started out slow and Kate could feel him inside her and their tattoos met each other for the first time. "Deeper baby, all the way. … Harder, please baby, … harder."

Kate could hear and feel as his tattoo slide in and out of her and slapped up against hers and in her mind she could just see sparks flying with each touch of their tattoos.

It was physical and now even more emotional as their tattoos competed the perfect joint symbol with each thrust, till finally Kate screamed out and Rick buried himself in deep and cried out as he filled her with his seed.


	11. Chapter 11

**CH11**

**It is now January 9****th**** 1999:**

Rick was standing in a kitchen making breakfast by the look of it. There was just one problem with this. "Where the hell am I?" Rick started looking around.

"This is the loft. … I live here. Only just bought it a few years ago. Where's, ..." Rick looked around again and saw that the TV was on and then he saw a pair of small arms raise up into the air, which answered his question of where Alexis was.

"You want breakfast pumpkin?" Rick called out, which got Alexis to hop out of the sofa and run around to the kitchen and climb up onto one of the stools. "I'll take that as a yes." Rick offers smiling.

"Ooops, sorry, yes please daddy. … Can we have pancakes?" Alexis offers up her choice in what to eat.

"I think that can be arranged. … chocolate chip or blueberry?" Rick offers up a choice and watches Alexis struggle with the choice as it plays across her face. "How about a little of each?"

Rick watches Alexis nod her head enthusiastically and gets to work. "Dad, where's mom?"

That got Rick to pause in his stirring of the batter. Mom? Meredith was in California and hadn't been heard from since the divorce just over 4 years ago. Alexis was too young to even remember Meredith, so why was she asking about her mother like she had just seen her yesterday?

"Uhm, … I don't know Alexis." Rick chose to go for a partial truth.

Rick had the first batch of chocolate chip on a plate and gave Alexis one of them and placed butter on it along with some powdered sugar and picked up the syrup bottle. "Shall I pour for her majesty?" Rick tried using his best English accent, getting Alexis to nod her head enthusiastically again.

"Say when." Rick offered and hadn't gotten very far when Alexis told him to "Stop!" However Rick just kept on pouring, just slower.

"Stop daddy, stop." Alexis switched to yelling.

"You didn't say WHEN." Rick points out.

"WHEN!" Alexis tries and watches Rick stop pouring, even if by now barely any was being poured out. Still it looked like her pancake was drowning.

A little later after Alexis had about half of it finished Rick stacked her little blueberry pancake on top. "Shall I pour for her majesty?" Rick holds up the bottle of syrup getting ready to drown this one too, only to watch Alexis shake her head and cover up her pancakes with her hands.

It had Rick grinning wide while he fixed his own and sat down next to her to eat. "So what do we do today?" Rick offers in-between bites. "Zoo perhaps or maybe the museum to hunt dinosaurs?" Knowing Alexis didn't start school till the start of the new school year, which was months away. For now she had pre-school to attend however they were still in Christmas recess that would end soon.

"Uhm, … " Alexis was having a tough time choosing. She liked looking at all the animals, plus her dad made it fun, however, going to the museum to hunt dinosaurs was also one of her favorite things. "Can mom come?"

That had Rick staring at her again. What was it with all the mom questions? Rick had actually opened his mouth to ask her about why she kept asking about mom, when the house phone rang.

That had Alexis practically jumping off her stool and running for the phone, before her dad could beat her to it. "Castle residence, Alexis Castle speaking." Alexis was grinning wide at having beaten her dad to the phone and how she introduced herself just like her dad had taught her. **"MOM!"** Alexis yelled into the phone, happy to hear her voice.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Kate was stretching out her long body while still in bed. "WOW, what a dream." Kate couldn't remember ever having a dream like that one before. And was mildly surprised that she still remembered most of it.

Usually her dreams escaped from her memory after or just before waking up, this one however was lingering. Kate turned her head and found one of Richard Castle's books on her night stand, likely where she had left it last night.

Kate could remember her mother offering it to her and trying to get her to read one of his books. Just that this time instead of refusing she took the book and went into her room with it, just to placate her mother and get her to stop pestering her about reading books from her favorite author.

Had she actually read this one last night? Was that why she was dreaming about Richard Castle, being in love, stuck on an island for months only to repeat those months over and over again?

Kate also knew from her mother that Castle was once divorced and that he had a daughter, not that she remembered her name. "Alexis." Kate slapped a hand over her mouth. Where the hell did that come from? Still she knew that was right.

Then they didn't repeat the islands and she was in a huge house with him and his daughter and his mother. "I was a homicide detective." Kate talks to herself.

"I'm going to be a lawyer like my parents, why would I want to be a homicide detective?" Kate shook her head. Dreams were crazy things. Kate did however remember a really fast boat and her really fast car. It had her grinning wide. "I owned my own Maserati." Kate's grin became a huge smile.

Then Kate remembered that Castle had proposed and she had said yes. That got Kate to look at her left hand which was empty. "Obviously a dream."

Kate now also remembered that Castle had agreed to her wild side of sex, all the kinky things she had longed to do but was far too afraid to talk about with any of her boyfriends, even the ones even she thought had been stupid of her to choose now.

"What was I thinking?" Kate ran a hand down her face. Still Castle had purchased all those toys that they were going to use, even the strap on for her. Castle was actually going to let her, …. It got her wet just thinking about it.

"Too bad it was just a dream." Kate deflated.

There was a knock on her door. "Time to get up sleepy head. Your father and I have work today and we want to know what your plans are for the day." Johanna called out and left.

Kate was home for Christmas break which was ending really soon. Too damn soon. Still she needed to go back to Stanford to finish her classes if she was going to complete her dream, it's just that why did Stanford have to be so damn far away?

Kate dragged her skinny butt out of bed and grabbed a towel out of the closet and went into the bathroom just outside her room down the hall. Here she turned on the water and started slipping out of her PJ's and checked the temperature before stepping into the shower.

Using the shampoo and conditioner first then grabbing her loofa and applying the body wash and started from the top down.

"**OH MY GOD!" **Kate dropped her loofa and stared at the tattoo that took up her entire private area along with a portion of her thighs and started twisting to try and see it on the back of her thighs and part way up her butt.

Kate stumbled out of the shower and tired using the lone mirror that was in this bathroom twisting and turning to try and see her back side. Suddenly she found herself staring at herself in the mirror and found herself running her hands over her face. Her face!

Kate heard a knock on the door. "You ok in there honey?" Johanna's voice makes its way through the door, sounding concerned.

"I'm fine. … I'm fine, I just slipped a little in the shower is all. Scared myself." Kate lies.

"We'll get a slip resistant mat later. Hurry up or you're going to miss breakfast." Johanna tells her and Kate can hear her walk back down the hall.

"I have a tattoo." … The tattoo. The tattoo that told her she had found someone to share her soul with, to become one with. Someone she loved more than life itself. So why was she not married to him and where was he?

Kate dried herself quickly and wrapped a towel around her head and went back into her room and started taking her bed apart. "Nothing." That got her down on all fours searching the floor till something sparkled back at her.

Kate grabbed it at studied it closely. It had a huge yellow diamond in the center surrounded by smaller clear diamonds. Kate huffed out a laugh and tried to put it back on her finger.

"It's too big. … It fell off during the night." Kate sat down on the floor and started laughing while crying. "He's real!" Kate placed her hand with her ring up against her heart. He was real, it was real!

Kate couldn't get her ring to stay on, her finger was just too skinny for it. So she searched her room for same tape and did the hold high school cheating thing. Wrapping tap around the lower half to make the ring fit tighter. Finally satisfied Kate stopped adding tape and felt that the ring would stay on now.

Kate went back to drying her hair and put on some clothes quickly and hurried for the kitchen. Out here she found her dad sitting and reading the paper while her mother was in the kitchen.

HER MOTHER! HER LIVE MOTHER!

Kate moved around into the kitchen and wrapped her arms around Johanna catching her by surprise. "Not that I'm complaining, but what is this for?" Johanna asks her hugging her daughter back.

"Because I love you mom and I've missed you so much." Kate didn't even try to stop the tears. It had been so long.

This was when it hit Kate. She had a tattoo, she had a ring, and she looked like she did when she was 19. "What day is it?" Kate knew she needed to know what today was.

"What day is it?" Johanna questioned, not understanding. How could her daughter not know what today was. Then found herself letting go of Kate as she moved off towards her father.

Johanna turned back to serve up Kate's breakfast on a plate and set it down.

Kate had a portion of the paper and looked at the date at the top. "January 9, 1999." Kate whispered.

MY GOD, TODAY WAS THE DAY!

"Don't forget you two need to meet me at the restaurant tonight after work." Johanna mentions off handedly.

Kate dropped the paper. **"NO!"** Johanna was going to die today, somehow Kate just knew it. "No mom you're not going to make it. … You're not going into work today." Kate grabbed Johanna's purse that had her ID and car keys in it.

"Katie what has gotten into you?" Johanna knew something was going on. Sleeping in, the shower floor wasn't that slippery, the hug she got this morning and now this.

"No mom, he's going to kill you because you've gotten too close to him." Kate held her mother's purse tight to her chest.

"Katie, what are you talking about?" Johanna moved in close until a sparkle of something caught her eye. It got Johanna to reach out and grab Kate's left hand. "Katherine Houghton Beckett, what have you done?" Johanna holds up Kate's left hand.

Suddenly Kate was beaming. In an instant she went from scared to proud and happy and Johanna watched it play across her face. "I'm engaged?" Kate offered softly.

"You're what!?" Both Johanna and Jim respond at the same time, with Jim getting up from where he was sitting reading the paper.

Jim now added his hand to Johanna's to look at this rock that was on his daughter's finger. "Wow, would you look at the size of this thing." Jim was impressed. He knew what engagement rings cost since he was the one that bought Johanna hers.

"Who is he?" Johanna and Jim ask at the same time.

"Rick." Kate replied softly. Then Kate's head shot up. "Rick can help me. Where's my cell phone?" Kate started looking around without moving.

"Cell phone? … What cell phone?" Johanna didn't understand. They didn't have cell phones.

Kate saw the cordless phone and took her hand back and grabbed it. "You're not going into work mom. I'm not losing you, not again." Kate looked at the phone.

"Lose me, Katie what is wrong with you?" Johanna was reaching her limit in all this.

"I only know his cell phone number." Kate whispered out. "Please let the number be the same." Kate prayed and entered the number after turning it on.

Someone answered after just three rings. "Castle?" Kate wanted it to be him.

"**MOM!"**

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"ALEXIS! … Thank god. Put your father on the phone honey. … Please." If Alexis answered the phone that meant Rick was there too, right?

"Hello?" A male voice answered.

"Hi babe." Kate suddenly felt a whole lot better. "Where are you?"

"KATE!?" Rick's voice sounded surprised. "Kate Beckett, homicide detective, captain of her own precinct." It all hit Rick like a ton of bricks. "We're in the loft." Rick looked around again just to make sure.

"The loft? Not the house?" Kate was confused again.

Kate could hear Rick laugh a little. "No, we're back in the loft again. We were just finishing breakfast. Where are you?" Rick asks back.

"My parent's house. … Today is January 9, 1999 babe." Kate was hoping Rick was up to speed. While looking up at her parents that were looking at her like she had just grown another head, or changed colors right in front of them.

"January 9, 1999." Rick repeats the date Kate gave her, then a light bulb goes on. "Your mother dies today. … How did we get to this date? Never mind, where are you, give me the address." Rick asks her running for his study that had a pen and paper. "Got it, give us half an hour. … And Kate, don't let her leave. Hog tie and sit on her if you have to, just don't let her leave." Rick starts to pat himself down to check if he had his wallet and car keys.

"She's not going anywhere babe, just hurry. … Please. And babe, do you have the, … tattoo?" Kate asks the last part softly, hoping it was soft enough that her parents didn't catch that.

"Tattoo? … Hang on." Rick walks for the on suite bathroom and drops his pants and his boxers. **"HOLY SHIT!"**

That got Kate to start giggling while also noticing that her parents had heard Rick. "Just hurry babe." And Kate hung up the phone.

"Come on pumpkin we have somewhere to go." Rick made sure the TV was off and made sure he was in the loft that he remembered.

"Where are we going daddy?" Kate asks holding her father's hand in the elevator.

"We are going to go see someone very, very important, so I need you to be on your best behavior." Rick cautions Alexis.

Alexis looked up at her dad. He had never said that before, so she stood up straight and went with him out into the garage.

"Oh swell, which one is mine this time?" Rick looked around and pulled out his keys and saw the symbol and pushed the button and watched the lights flash.

"WOW, I don't know what's going on, but they have good taste in cars. … Rick opened it and found a car seat for Alexis in the passenger seat. "And they or I plan ahead."

1999 Aston Martin Vantage Volante, in this case it was a two seat convertible. Sort of a light green with white leather seats. 5.9L V12, 420 hp.

"Not exactly the perfect car for a family, but I like it." However it was what Rick had to work with.

"Now to get to this address. …. Oooo, GPS. Somebody up there must like me." Rick plugged it in and took off driving.

"Alright Katie enough of this, what is going on? Who did you call and who are you engaged to? … Is it someone while you were in Stanford? … I knew we shouldn't have let you go away that far on your own." Johanna shook her head.

"You're working a case, aren't you mom. One where you plan of going to a dead end alley that is presently an opening to a bar. That's why you want to meet us at that restaurant." Kate provides information Johanna didn't think she knew about.

"Katie, how do you? … I work on several cases you know that." Johanna tries deflecting.

"Except this case is going to expose someone powerful who has a kill order out on you already. You're going to go to that alley for whatever reason. Decided to go there on your own, was offered to meet someone there, was duped into going there tonight, whatever.

The point is you will never leave that alley tonight, except in a body bag. Leaving dad and I to wait in the restaurant for hours, only to finally come home to find a detective waiting for us. You had been stabbed in the back, going into shock instantly and left to bleed out slowly. Knowing you were going to die and not be able to do anything about it.

You're already too close mom, he has placed a hit out on you already. Unless we stop him, he will kill you." Kate was piecing together what she already knew.

"Katie?" Johanna didn't know what to say. What she had was big and she knew it. She had even placed the tape she had in what she thought would be a safe place that Katie would eventually find, or she could get to it when needed. Hidden in plain sight.

"It's already too late mom." Kate warns her.

"What is she talking about Jo?" Jim saw something in his wife's eyes. How Katie knew all of this escaped him and he had a hundred questions, but first this.

"Jim I'm doing the best I can, we all are." Johanna didn't want either of them involved with this. It was dangerous and if someone had to die it should only be her.

"So you think sacrificing yourself to him will somehow save all of us? I thought you knew better mom." Kate now knew that her mom had known all along.

"And how does dad becoming an alcoholic and treat me like useless scum. The things he says when he's drunk day after day for years. Losing his job, losing the house, leaving us out on the street. My never finishing Stanford, having to grow up and be the adult in this family starting today.

This is your grand plan? Destroying your family? He's killed 19 people mom, so that he can keep his secret. You and all your staff." Kate is mad at her, furious even.

Johanna sucks in a breath. She hadn't thought about her staff. "How do you even know all this?" Johanna was so sure that she had been careful.

Then there was someone at their front door when the doorbell rings. Kate stood up straight hoping it was who she thought it was, since her mom wasn't going to die until tonight.

Jim opened the door to find a man and his little girl in his hand at the door. He even recognized him from the photo on the back of Johanna's books. **"MOM!"** And Alexis was out her dad's hand and past Jim in a heartbeat.

Kate was down on her knees just as Alexis reached her and they wrapped their arms around each other.

"Alexis honey." Kate held on tight and started giving Alexis's head kisses, till Kate pulled back a little.

Kate had her hands on each side of Alexis's face. "Look at you. … You're so young." Kate kissed her head and went back to hugging Alexis for all she was worth.

Johanna was watching all of this with her mouth hanging open. MOM!? Who was this child? She looked like she was 5 so there was no way it was Katie's daughter, but how did Katie become mom?

Jim however was still standing at the door shocked. Rick sticks out his hand. "Hi Jim, it's been a while. It's good to see you again."


	12. Chapter 12

**CH12**

**It is still January 9, 1999:**

It was almost lunch now and Rick and Alexis were still in the Beckett house along with Johanna and Jim.

"Let me get this straight." Johanna squeezes her eyes closed before re-opening them. "You two first met at a coffee shop, then ran across each other at a hotel over in Jersey where Alexis here, who was 16 years old at the time, flew all of you out in a plane to these islands that you bought after killing of Derek Storm. A character that you haven't even written about yet, and while you are there you write three more books using Nikki Heat, based off of Katie.

Who was a homicide detective and was actually just starting to be a captain of her own precinct. It was out here on these islands that you two fell in love. And then you started repeating the same months over and over again, until one time you didn't. And that was when you took Jim and your mother out there with you.

And you went out to these islands because of a zombie attack.

Jim is a drunk and you have buried yourself in your work, closing off you heart to everyone until you are forced to spend time with Rick and Alexis. All because I die from a stab wound tonight before meeting you at a restaurant.

And the reason I'm dead is because Bracken has decided that I'm too close and has me killed to keep his secrets." Johanna does her best to sum up what she has heard from these two.

"And now you've gone even further back in time to the day that I'm killed." Johanna adds.

"I know what it sounds like mom, ..." However Kate is interrupted.

"Sounds like? It sounds like a lot of science fiction or one of your books with a little time travel, that is impossible by the way, thrown in for good measure." Johanna contradicts all this. She has to protect her family.

"Johanna, I'm all too aware of what this sounds like, however just who do you think you are protecting? You, your family? We got a lot of our information from you and your notes that you left behind." Rick points out.

"My notes?" Johanna didn't see how, her notes were her own short hand, something she had done on purpose.

"You know where her notes are?" Rick asks looking at Kate, who is up and running in a heartbeat after putting Alexis down on the floor who had been sitting in her lap with Kate's arms wrapped around her.

Kate is soon back with her mom's note book and hands it over to Rick, who opens it. "This entry here is your appointment time and location for between you and Roy Montgomery, who is already captain of the 12th precinct." Rick points and turns the book for Johanna to see.

"This one is your reminder to yourself not to forget Kate's birthday. It even has a side notation reminding you what to purchase that year.

This one is your notes on your interview that you had with Pulgotti. The man who was framed for murder even though McCallister is actually the one who did the killing of the undercover FBI guy.

This one is about some recording you have that implicated Bracken about issuing your killing because you are too close. Problem is Roy lets you down and doesn't reach you in time and you end up dead later tonight.

We got the file that Roy put together to blackmail Bracken to keep him away from Roy, his family and Kate. We even know the name of the guy who is going to kill you tonight along with all of your staff.

In our time Bracken has had 19 people killed including you using his hired killers to do his dirty work. His ambitions for power knows no limits. We even have the account number for the offshore bank account that he used to put his initial money into to win his first election.

By our time he has amassed over $1 Billion. Getting almost all of it from the drug trade that he runs.

Maybe you don't care what happens to you, your husband or Kate. However there are another 18 families who have had their lives destroyed, and that's not counting the thousands of people that take his drugs." Rick was tiring of Johanna's deflection.

"Don't tell me I don't love my family. Don't even!" Johanna yells at Rick.

"Then prove it!" Rick yells back. "Jim is a drunk, your daughter is broken and becomes a homicide detective with the sole reason being she wants to find out who killed you and bring him or her to justice.

There is too much at stake now Johanna, or more accurately, there will be more at stake. And since you die tonight unless we stop it, time is also now short." Rick tries a shock tactic.

"Please mom, you don't know what your death did to us, … both of us." Kate pleads.

"How much of this is true Jo?" Jim speaks for the first time in a long time, since he had just sat there listening.

Johanna deflates. Her family knew too much already. Even if she wanted to protect them from Bracken, she couldn't. "All of it." Johanna offers weakly.

"You know who is behind all of this and you didn't say anything?" Jim thought he knew his wife. Damn woman always was head strong and stubborn.

"I was trying to protect you. If you didn't know he had no reason to go after you, and I've been careful." Johanna tries pleading her case.

"Not careful enough if there really is a hit out on you already. … God Jo, why do you have to be so damn stubborn and not let people help you?" Jim was now mad, hearing his own wife confirm all of this.

"Like mother like daughter." Rick mumbles, which earns him a swat from Kate.

It was now that Rick noticed something. "What's with all the tape?" Rick holds onto Kate's left hand.

"It fell off while I was asleep. It's too big for my finger now and I didn't want it falling off again. I went through too much to get it to lose it." Kate leans across to give Rick a quick kiss.

"You two are actually engaged?" Johanna asks, getting Jim's attention.

"I love him mom, him and Alexis. Alexis is mine even if I didn't give birth to her. Which reminds me, we need to do something about Meredith and Gina if we stay in this time line." Kate adds.

"I haven't seen Meredith since the divorce and I don't meet Gina until a few books before I start my Derek Storm series, so I shouldn't have met her yet, … maybe.

Am I known as a playboy going around with countless women yet?" Rick asks looking at Johanna.

"The papers have made mention of it, but nothing too serious yet. You're just popular." Johanna tells him.

Rick hangs his head low. "Sounds like Gina is in the picture than." Rick moans.

"We'll deal with it babe, and when Meredith shows up I'm going to kick her ass this time instead of just talk to her." Kate places one of her hands on Rick's.

"My favorite author is engaged to my daughter." Johanna shakes her head.

"I even remember when you came to one of my book signings, and brought Kate with you." Rick offers.

"You remember that? Katie was such a pain for the entire time we waited in line." Johanna wasn't afraid of throwing her daughter under the bus.

"I wasn't that bad mom." Kate takes exception, getting Rick to start laughing. "Shut-up." Kate slaps Rick on the upper arm.

"This still leaves what we do to keep your mother alive and the rest of you out of range of Bracken." Rick points out.

"We need someplace safe, someplace that will keep them safe till we figure out what to do first." Kate offers.

"We move everyone to the loft. It has the bedrooms we need and it is in a secure building. We can discuss strategy there." Rick offers.

"Go pack you two, we're moving." Kate tells her mother and father.

"Just who is the parent here?" Johanna counters, not used to having her daughter telling her what to do.

"I lost you once mom and I'm not doing it again. It hurt too much the first time, so go pack. We can make plans on what to do next after we get there. So go pack and bring whatever you need with you." Kate tries again.

It took some time but Johanna and Jim were all packed as was Kate and exiting the house. "You remember how to get to the loft?" Rick asks looking at Kate.

"I remember." Kate smiles. "This yours?" Kate asks looking at the Aston Martin.

"So it would appear. I still don't understand what is going on. … We need to talk tonight." Rick whispers that last part, getting Kate to nod her head.

"I don't suppose I have a car too?" Kate was kind of hoping for another Maserati.

"I don't know, there wasn't much time between when we started in the loft and your phone call, so I guess we will find out." Rick offers.

"Aston Martin. … Nice. Only two seats?" Kate questions, getting Rick to shrug his shoulders. It was a good looking car and he liked it.

"I'll try not to lose you while you follow, but if I do, you know where to go. You'll need to park out on the street somewhere however." Rick reminds Kate.

"We'll be right behind you." Kate wraps her arms around Rick's neck and kisses him soundly for the first time, not knowing her parents were watching all of this.

"We may be doing more than talking tonight." Rick arched his eyebrows a couple of times.

"I look forward to it, plus I want to see that tattoo you have." Kate grinned wide.

"I'll be sure to examine yours very, very closely." Rick smiled and gave Kate a quick kiss.

Jim, who was driving, was right behind him all the way, which Rick made easy since he wasn't going very fast, until he diverted to parking in the garage below the building after putting in his code to get in.

Rick with Alexis in hand was waiting at the front door next to the doorman who Rick was talking to so that none of these three would be denied access to the building when they wanted.

"There are three bedrooms upstairs, one is Alexis's and the others are guest rooms, just pick which one you like best and unpack and meet us downstairs." Rick offers and waits to escort Kate to the master bedroom after watching Jim, Johanna and Alexis go upstairs.

"Any ideas on what we do?" Rick asks.

"Not much no. Mom isn't going to like the idea of hiding out here for very long. A day or two at the most." Kate knows her mother will not back down.

"We need to put together what each of us knows and then we can start talking about how we deal with it." Rick offers, getting Kate to nod her head. It sounded like a good enough plan for now to her.

"I'll let you unpack, I'm going to make a couple of phone calls. The first being my lawyer, find out what is different this time." Rick didn't know what was going on, or how. He could just work with what he had.

It took Rick a little longer than he thought and found everyone else in the living room sitting and talking to each other. He also saw something that he thought he would never see. Little 5 year old Alexis was in Kate's lap who had her arms wrapped around her.

"I don't know why we remember from one time to the next. Each time starts off like a dream till we get a little more deep into our lives. This one is a first for us." Kate mentions.

"Time travel, where you have no control over where you go each time. This is a lot to take Katie, even from you. … And if you're not in control than who is?" Johanna asks still not sure she believes this. It's just that Katie and Richard Castle knew too much. She was sure she had been careful.

"Haven't got a clue." Rick walks in and kisses Kate's head. "How are you doing pumpkin?" Rick looks into Alexis's eyes.

"Fine daddy." Alexis smiles since she is happy where she is.

"I'm beyond confused." Jim points out.

"What did your lawyer say?" Kate was interested in what he had learned.

Rick sat down on the sofa placing Johanna between himself and Jim. "There are a few differences this time too. I own the loft along with a few other real estate locations, just not all of them. There is also a new one out in the Caribbean that I don't remember owning." Rick was confused.

"Bank account and more important, do I have my own car?" Kate wanted to know if she still owned a Maserati. She liked that car.

"Bank account is about what I remember it was at that time. I had him buy stock in Apple Computers." Rick started grinning and lifted his eyebrows a couple of times. "And as for your car? Well it seems there is a car that is likely down in the garage that is in your name. It's a 1999 Jaguar XKR convertible, 4.0L, V8, 290 hp."

"Isn't that called insider trading?" Kate questions.

"No it's called foresight buying." Rick was still grinning. "Speaking of money." Rick jumped up and went back into his study and came back out with his laptop. "You still remember the account numbers, passwords and secrets?" Rick asks, getting Kate to start smiling.

It took some time, but all of the money in the account was moved again and again. "Probably should have used different laptops and different W-fi locations, just too late now." Rick offers as he shuts down his computer.

"We need to buy burner phones and get another laptop tomorrow." Rick adds.

"What did you just do?" Johanna was curious.

"I just stole his drug money that he plans on using to afford his next election. He needs to remain a senator in order to make his run for President." Rick answers her question. "He only has $412 million at this time, a few years from now and he would have over $1 billion."

"President?" Johanna responds back.

"President of the United States mom. It's his ultimate goal. Gain control of everything. An elected dictator if you will." Kate answers her mom's question.

"And our hiding out here does what for us?" Johanna didn't like hiding.

"We're creating time. … Time you didn't have after tonight. Time to stop him before he kills even more people, destroys even more families lives. Time to send him to hell. Time to save perhaps everyone and everything. Time to give Kate her family back. Just extra time." Rick tells her.

"Why you? I don't mean to be insulting, but you're a writer how are you involved?" Johanna loved his books but this was hard to take, hard to believe in.

"Me mom, he's here because of me. I love him, more than I've ever loved anyone. Rick is the person I've been waiting for, for a long time. If we solve this, I get time with you that I had lost and I get extra time with the love of my life. Rick and Alexis." Kate squeezed Alexis and kissed the back of her head, an Alexis who had been strangely quiet. "You don't know the pain of you dying tonight caused, there are so many things.

Are you alright Alexis honey? You've been really quiet." Kate changes her attention from her mother to Alexis and talks into one of her ears.

"I'm fine mommy." Alexis didn't do or say anything else which had Kate worried. From the look on Rick's face he had heard it too.

"So what's the plan?" Johanna asks.

"We need to gather all of our information and go over all of it, plus we need to talk with Roy Montgomery. He has been creating a file to keep Bracken away from his family." Rick offers. "It would be helpful to have what he has too."

"What we don't know is how much time we have. With a hit order out on you mom you need to stay indoors, out of sight, and I know how much you are going to hate that, but you need to think of us. Your death causes a lot of pain mom, more than I think you understand." Kate started blinking back tears from all the years she had missed her mother and yet here she was.

"I don't think I understand all this time travel stuff, but you need to understand everything I did was to keep my family safe." Johanna tries to plead her case.

"Safe with broken hearts that were never going to be repaired. It took years for dad to stop drinking, years more for our relationship to be partially repaired, years for dad to even get a few clients to get back to work. It was only through luck that I ran across Rick and Alexis. Even then it took re-living those months over and over again for them to make their was into my(?) heart mom. Life was nothing but pain." Kate had to stop talking or she was going to break down, while still holding onto Alexis.

"I'm sorry honey, it wasn't my plan to end up killed. All I really wanted to do was gather enough evidence for my client without getting my family into trouble." Johanna so wanted to get up and hold her daughter, it's just that it looked like Alexis was doing that for her since Alexis had turned around and was hugging Kate.

Her compensation was ending up in her husband's arms. Johanna knew the two of them were likely not going to get much sleep tonight since their night was going to be filled with talking to each other.

They had an idea of what to do tomorrow, just without a detailed plan. All they knew was that Johanna was trapped inside the loft for now.

Tonight was the first night that Johanna and Jim found out that Rick could cook while they watched Kate help him like she had done this a number of times already.

Johanna was just sitting at the breakfast bar watching them work together and how Kate knew where everything was, and then watch Kate pause to fill everyone's glass of wine again.

"What mom?" Kate had noticed the look on her face.

"It's nothing, it's just that I can't help but notice that it looks like you two have done this together before. My 19 year old daughter who didn't even want to read his books, is suddenly engaged to him. Whose daughter calls you mom." Johanna was still trying to wrap her mind around this.

"You didn't want to read my books?" Rick stopped cooking to stare at Kate.

"It's not like that babe. I was, ..." Kate squeezed her eyes closed since this was going to hurt. "I was just being difficult." Kate just knew what was coming.

"HA, I knew it!" Johanna points at Kate. Victory was hers!

"Fine, you win mom." Kate gives in. Kate however figured that since she was engaged to Rick and loved his daughter like she was her own, that she was the ultimate winner here.

"So when is your next book coming out Rick?" Johanna was curious, now that she had direct access to the source.

Rick looked confused for a moment. "To be honest I'm not even sure what my last book was. Have you heard anything about the Derek Storm series?" Maybe that would help him place himself in time.

Johanna shook her head. "What's it about?" Maybe a little inside information.

"_A Calm Before The Storm_, _Gathering Storm_, _Unholy Storm_, _Storm's Last Stand_, _Storm Season_, _Storm Rising_, _Storm Warning_, _Storm's Break and Storm Fall?" Rick asks, getting Johanna to shake her head. He was sure at least the first one would be available by now, however maybe he is wrong._

"Sounds like I have a lot of typing to do. Plus the three Nikki Heat books." Rick adds.

"OH GOD!" Kate moans and tries to get her forehead to rest on the table top.

"Nikki Heat?" Johanna wasn't too sure about the name, but was more curious about Katie's reaction to the name.

"It's a series of books about when Kate was or will be a homicide detective and captain of her own precinct." Rick starts to explain.

"You wrote an entire series in this future you about a future Katie and named the character Nikki Heat?" Johanna thought she had it right, though admittedly she was still having trouble with this whole time travel thing.

"Please don't give him any encouragement mom." Kate still had hopes of getting him to change the name.

"It's a great name, it's a cop name." Rick loved this part.

"It's a stripper name Rick. How am I supposed to be taken seriously being associated with a stripper?" Kate didn't want to know how much grief she was going to get over being called Nikki Heat behind her back.

"I told you she is a little slutty." Rick was smiling since he knew the name was staying, the book titles alone were just too numerous to mention.

Johanna was looking at Jim who had a smile on his face. It looked like the two of them had even more to talk about when they went to bed tonight.

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There will be a delay in posting the next chapter. Sorry to say life has slowed down my writing time and i haven't finished it or even started the next chapter.

However you can go read "Life is a Beach" since i had finished 29 chapters before i stopped posting it initially. So i have a lot to work with, with that story.

Happy reading!


	13. Chapter 13

**CH13**

**It is now January 10, 1999**

Kate had found the keys to her car and was downstairs with Rick looking it over. It was a Jag alright, fire engine red with tan seats and a tan colored soft top. It too had a GPS unit however this one was separate from the car. It was sitting in its docking port on top of the dash with an electrical cord leading down to the cigarette lighter spot.

"It's gorgeous." Kate liked the look of it. After getting in the driver's seat and starting the car, allowed her to lower the top. "Well at least it has a back seat. It's just when Alexis gets a year or two older we're going to have to cut her legs off so she can fit." Kate points out, not even sure there was room for her legs now.

"Doesn't matter, in a couple of years we are both going to have new cars anyway." Rick points out.

"Did we at least buy these this time?" Kate asks while putting the top back up and locking it into place and then started studying the dashboard.

"My lawyer, who isn't Henry yet, is still working on that." Rick tells her.

Kate had the car turned off and locking the doors followed by rubbing her hands across the cloth top. "It's still nice, I like yours too, maybe even more. It's just that we need a car with a back seat." How could they go anywhere as a family if they couldn't take Alexis with them?

"We'll think of something." Rick was sure.

Kate had stripped her clothes off and was washing her face looking at herself in the mirror when Rick showed up in the mirror, just as naked as she was. Kate could tell by looking at his eyes that he was looking her over.

"I think I can hide my tattoo wearing my normal long leg swim trunks, you on the other hand." Rick could see her tattoo on her thigh and up her butt just a little.

"I'll wear a wrap to hide it, at least until I'm comfortable with people seeing it." Kate offered and watched as Rick walked up right behind her and wrap his arms around her.

Rick was soon placing soft kisses to her shoulder and neck. "Do you remember getting the tattoo babe?" Kate asks.

"I remember everything. I even remember ordering all those toys you wanted us to play with too." Rick informs her.

"We don't really need to get those Rick." Kate still didn't want to force him into anything.

Rick spun Kate in place so that she was facing him. "You said this tattoo was mystical in its origins and that it bound us together, made us one. So yes, we are getting your toys and we will be using them. Maybe on holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, … vacations." Rick was thinking of making their use special.

"You didn't have to do this Rick." Kate was still amazed that he had gone along with her wild plan.

Rick suddenly lifted Kate up and sat her on the counter and slipped into the space between her legs. "Yes I did, and I don't regret it. I'll admit seeing you as a 19 year old gives me pause. I'm just a few months short of being 10 years older than you." Rick felt like Kate was almost too young now.

Kate however placed her fingers over his mouth. "I don't care babe, I don't. I know that I love you and Alexis, and that's enough for me." Kate removed her hand and gave Rick a quick kiss.

Rick however kissed her back with passion, running his hands over the smooth features of her flawless skin. Feeling Kate wrap her legs around him and kiss him back.

Rick moved to kissing her neck and drawing out the flesh of her neck while placing her young breasts in his hands, finally getting Kate to moan into his mouth.

Kate soon felt Rick at her entrance and wanted nothing more than to feel him inside her with the knowledge of their tattoo's completing a mystical circuit, making them one.

Kate was clinging onto Rick after feeling him fill her up inside, trying to get her breathing back under control. "Bed baby, take me to bed."

Rick walked Kate to their bed with her legs still wrapped around her and with him still inside her. It was only getting into bed did Rick come out of her.

Rick had two more orgasms screaming out of Kate with his head planted firmly between her thighs as he worked his way up her body, kissing every square inch as he went, till Kate could taste herself on his lips.

Kate flipped them so that she was on top and placed Rick at her entrance as she slowly dropped herself onto him and started rocking back and forth.

Kate leaned way back till she was literally lying on Rick's legs as she came and could feel Rick fill her inside again.

They were still awake wrapped up in each other. "I can almost feel you inside me when I come, all of you. Like you are inside my head." Kate confides as she uses her finger to doodle on Rick's chest.

"And here I thought it was just me. It almost feels like I've lost myself, like it isn't me anymore. I can feel myself trying to reach for something, I just don't know what it is I'm reaching for." Rick tries to explain.

"If what I heard is right, we are both trying to reach out to each other in that moment and if we find each other we become one and can feel what the other feels. Hear what the other thinks." Kate tries to explain the tattoo they both have.

"Only when our two tattoos are joined?" Those moments were so short, Rick felt let down somehow, like it should be more. He wanted more.

"I don't know. … I hope not. You're who I want Rick. I want to feel you, to hear your thoughts, to know that you love me, not just hear you tell me that you love me. … I don't know, maybe I'm asking for too much. Maybe I shouldn't have talked you into this tattoo." Kate was coming close to having regrets.

Kate suddenly found herself on her back with Rick looming above her with a serious expression on his face. "I love you Kate, you mean everything to me. My family means everything to me. You want to know what I know, feel what I feel? Then don't shut me out with your doubts. Let me in Kate, all the way in.

Did you really think that all you needed to do was get a tattoo and have sex with someone? How are you going to reach me if you don't try. Your 19 now Kate, you don't have walls anymore, let go of them. All they are doing is trapping you in behind them.

Your walls are not a fortress to keep people out, it's a prison to keep you inside them. You need to come out Kate or these tattoos are just that, another tattoo." Rick looks into her eyes.

Kate reached up to cup his face with her hand. "I'm sorry babe, so very sorry. I may be 19 again, but I brought my walls with me. I don't want them, I don't. I guess I have trouble believing that I actually found someone I could do this with. It was just a dream, a wish I never thought could come true, till now."

"The wall has to go Kate, every last brick if you want that dream." Rick pleads with her.

"I love you and I want it, more than I've wanted anything. Just hold me Rick, while I take down my wall. Just love me and wait for me." Kate asks of him.

"I'll wait till we are both old and gray if I have to." Rick gins down at her.

"It better not take that long." Kate lifts up to give Rick a quick kiss.

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Johanna was laying on her side propped up on one elbow with her head in her hand, looking over at her husband, while lying in a strange bed in a strange apartment, with their daughter with her favorite author. "Tell me what you think."

"I'm not sure what to think. Do we talk about what you are doing behind my back, or what our daughter has done behind our backs?" Jim wasn't sure which pissed him off more, or surprised him more.

Johanna let her forehead rest on Jim's chest. "I'm sorry, I was doing what I thought was the right thing. I really was just trying to keep my family safe." Johanna started to plead her case.

"Which if Katie is right you failed miserably at since you should be dead by now, and may yet be. And as much as it pains me, my reaction to your death does sound like me." Jim hated to admit it, just that Johanna meant so much to him.

"I thought I was being careful Jim, I really did." Johanna didn't know where things went wrong if Katie was right and she had no reason to doubt her daughter.

"Well the two of us are involved now, unless you happen to have a death wish." Jim responds back. "So tell me everything and this time I want to know everything." Jim wanted in like he already thought he was until his wife went behind his back.

"Only if we keep Katie out of this." Johanna tried to keep Kate safe.

"By the sounds of it, it's already too late for that. If she really is from the future it sounds like she knows at least as much as you do if not more.

You chose to work this case Jo, and when you did you included your family, like it or not. And it sounds like you need our daughter's help along with Rick. I'll not have you dying on us Jo." Jim points out.

"What do you think of this time travel story?" Johanna changes the subject.

"Deflecting doesn't change anything Jo, your trying to protect us by keeping us in the dark has to end and is going to end. … As for Katie, Rick and Alexis. … I have no trouble seeing that Katie loves Alexis like she was her own child. She looked at acted a lot like you." Jim comments.

"And Rick?" Johanna questions.

"Katie is 19 and involved with an older man, and not just a year or two but almost 10. Who already has a child." Jim still didn't know what to think of that.

"Katie isn't a child anymore Jim and it sounds like, ..." Johanna stops talking as the sound of Kate screaming from the bedroom from her second orgasm of the night filters up, getting Johanna to bury her head into Jim's chest.

"Rick and I are having a talk I know that much for sure." Jim mentions, earning him a swat to his chest from Johanna.

"Don't screw up her happiness Jim. Katie deserves someone in her life. How are you supposed to walk her down the aisle if you run off all her boyfriends?" Johanna tries to protect her daughter.

"You mean **fiancé** and by the size of that ring she was wearing we are way past boyfriend." Jim points out.

"I don't have a problem with Rick so long as Katie loves him for the right reasons." Johanna offers her opinion.

"Of course you don't, you're in love with his books. What I want to know is how is Katie going to react when she finds her name and picture in the paper every few weeks. Katie has always been quiet and not willing to be in the public eye." Jim knew Johanna was biased towards Rick.

"Katie will adjust, she's young." Johanna offers.

"Yes young, and Rick isn't and already has a child." Jim comes back to age.

"A daughter that Katie loves deeply, or did you miss watching her keep Alexis in her lap the entire time with her arms wrapped protectively around her? Or when Katie kissed the back of her head every few minutes? Or the way that Alexis relaxed into Kate like it was the most natural thing to do?" Johanna fired back.

"No I didn't miss that." Jim was forced to admit. "I also didn't miss that she called him babe most of the time either instead of using his name."

"Because she is on love. When was the last time you saw her face light up with any of her other boyfriends?" Johanna questions him.

"Well since most of them were the ones I'd rather have shot than think of being her boyfriend, …." Jim pauses as the sound of Kate screaming during her third orgasm of the night filters up to their bedroom.

"And we need to solve this soon." Jim wasn't sure how much longer he was going to last if he had to keep hearing his daughter screaming during sex.

Johanna however was grinning wide. "I'll talk with her about being more quiet." Johanna offers.

"How about not having sex at all until she's 30?" Jim offers instead, which earns him a swat to his chest.

"Are you ready to offer up all the information you have tomorrow and add to what they have, so we can end this, before you get yourself killed?" Jim changes subjects.

"I brought everything with me." Johanna confirms.

"Including what you were doing in that alley, where you were to die tonight?" Jim questions.

"Yes, even that." Johanna finally saw that she didn't have a choice. Everyone was already in too deep to keep them safe. The only way to keep them safe now, was to end it.

"We need a plan." Rick offers up while they eat a light breakfast since no one seemed to be hungry and Alexis wasn't even up yet.

First up was talking about what each had or in the case of Rick and Kate, what they knew. Since every time they changed time, they lost all of their hard copy evidence.

Johanna provided something they didn't have or had ever heard before. Bracken talking about having people killed, including Johanna.

"And you thought that dying was going to protect us?" Kate was instantly mad that her mother already knew he wanted her dead.

"That's why I arranged to meet someone in that alley where the undercover FBI guy had been killed." Johanna had a plan, or thought she did.

"Trust me mom, that didn't work out. Who did you plan on meeting there?" Maybe she or Rick knew who it was.

"His name was Hal Lockwood. I found him through a friend who directed me to him. He's ex-military who used to be special forces. I thought someone who had been trained and seen service would be a good person to have." Johanna tells them.

"Oh God!" Rick moans, and gets a confused look on Johanna's face.

"Lockwood is one of Bracken's hired killers mom. Him, Dick Coonan and Gregory Volkov. Though when it comes to Volkov we don't think he works directly for Bracken. We think they happen to have mutual enemies or wanted certain people killed that somehow benefited Bracken." Kate is forced to tell her mother.

"He sounded so trustful." Johanna moans. "And I needed someone."

"Why didn't you talk with Roy Montgomery?" Rick asks knowing Roy wished he had never gotten involved.

"Actually I have talked to him a little. I told him about the tape, even if he is on it. He was the only voice on the tape that took exception to all the killing." Johanna comments.

"You should have talked to him a little more mom. He could have told you who all of Bracken's hired killers are, and likely where he gets them." Kate wasn't overly happy with her mother.

"In face we need to invite him over for dinner and a talk soon, since he is building a file and is using it to blackmail Bracken with to keep his family safe." Rick points out. "Maybe Kate and I should visit him in his office and invite him over." Rick offers.

It was now that Alexis finally dragged her still sleepy body downstairs. "Hi honey!" Kate was up and scooping her up and kissing Alexis's face. "Ready for breakfast? … Then we need to get you into the tub, dressed and ready for the day." Kate kissed her again.

Kate was upstairs with Alexis in the tub. "I'm still having trouble seeing Katie here as a mother to a five year old. It was just yesterday that she was at Stanford chasing her dream of being a lawyer." Johanna comments, getting Jim to nod his head.

"That's because you haven't lived the life we have. The entire thing feels like a dream to us half the time. We have kind of a shadowy memory of all the times prior to where we are now. It's only after we talk to each other more that it becomes more real." Rick tells them.

"If our estimate is right, we have already spent 15 years together in 9 month increments over and over again." Rick reminds them.

"Fifteen years and Katie is only 19." Jim still had trouble wrapping his mind around all of this.

Rick however shook his head. "Our 15 years together started when Kate was 34, not 19. I've only ever seen Kate as a 19 year old in a couple of photos. She's as beautiful now as she was then." Rick knew that he loved her at 19 or 34 or older.

"What I don't understand is how your daughter is adapting to all of this. She's was young when you two met and she's even younger now, however she seems well adjusted to all of this." Johanna points out.

"Kate and I are still working on why that is. Alexis doesn't seem to remember all of it like we do. She seems to remember the feeling of most things, just not the action of everything.

For example, she remembers going to the islands, just not what we did there or how we got there. Alexis knows she loves Kate then and now and trusts her completely." Rick was confused about how Alexis's memories seemed to not be as complete. Maybe it had something to do with her being young and then even younger.

Johanna didn't like the idea of hiding in Rick's loft, however listening to her daughter beg her to stay indoors and not make herself a target, when she herself knows that she is one, had her staying behind with Jim and Alexis.

"We'll keep Alexis occupied." Johanna assures them as Rick and Kate leave for their un-announced visit.

Roy had allowed them to come up though if you asked him he didn't know why, except to think maybe it had to do with a case.

Roy hadn't been captain of this precinct very long. His getting this job was a dream come true, he really was hoping that being in this position that he could start to making a difference for what Bracken was doing.

Rick and Kate stepped out of the elevator and that sense of **Déjà vu** since everything seemed so familiar, especially to Kate. "Anything look familiar?" Rick teased, getting Kate to glare at him.

Rick gave a quick knock, not needing anyone to point them in the right direction. "Captain Montgomery, I'm Rick Castle and this is Kate Beckett." Rick gives introduction.

Roy offers both of them a chair. "How may I help you?"

"We have a mutual problem that we want to talk with you about." Rick tells him to start with.

"Oh?" Roy couldn't think of anything that involved these two.

"We wanted to invite you and your family over for dinner tomorrow evening, so we can discuss it." Rick offered.

Roy was confused. Dinner at their house to discuss a case? "I don't see why that would be necessary. What's this about?"

"It's about the file you are building to try and protect your family from Bracken and his desire to eliminate any loose ends that you represent. We want to take him down without having you go with him." Rick tells him.

"Please sir, we have your voice on the tape where Bracken talks about having people killed, including the hit that he put out on my mother. … Johanna Beckett." Kate didn't want him dead and wanted his help.

"We know you have valuable information that can be added to ours and rid the US and us of Bracken.

Newspaper articles, lists of names, bank account numbers, cashier's checks that were used to make payments to have someone run over the little girl of one of his opponents, clearing the path for his easy victory. Along with other payoffs." Rick tells him.

"We know about Dick Coonan and his brother that he killed to protect what he is doing. Along with Hal Lockwood, both of which are out there right now looking for my mother. As soon as she is killed he is going to kill her entire staff just to make sure." Kate tells him.

"The death count is only going to grow Roy. … Please come to this address tomorrow at 7:00. You can bring your family and call it a social visit to cover the visit." Rick slides his address across Roy's desk.

"Think about it sir, I think together we can take him down and free up our futures." Kate tells him.


	14. Chapter 14

**CH14**

**It is now January 11, 1999**

Roy didn't believe he was actually doing this. This had to be one of the stupidest things he had ever done, and yet here he was being let into the building past the doorman who had told them they were expected and that Castle was on the top floor.

Evelyn it seems had jumped at the chance to meet the author. "How many times does one get to meet an author that has books on the top ten sellers list? Granted he's not Patterson, …." Evelyn had trailed off.

Off the elevator and down the hall to knock on the only door on this floor.

It opened quickly finding Rick on the other end. "ROY! Glad you could make it, and Evelyn it's a pleasure. Let me take your coats." Rick offers. It was January after all.

"How does he know my name?" Evelyn whispers to her husband while Rick was putting their coats in the closet just off the front door.

"You didn't bring the girls?" Rick asks.

Which got a strange look from both of them. "We only have one daughter and she's with the babysitter." Roy offers.

Rick kicked himself internally, it was 1999 and the second girl hadn't been born yet. "I meant girls as in adding Alexis, she would have liked to have met her. You should have brought her." Rick only started breathing again when Alexis started down the stairs from her room.

"We didn't know you had a daughter." Evelyn tells him, and seeing Alexis she knows Rick was likely right, they could have played together instead of being stuck with a babysitter.

Rick introduced Kate, Johanna, Jim and Alexis. "I'm sure the ladies would like wine." And pours glasses for each, while handing out beers to the guys. "Take a look around, make yourselves at home."

Rick stayed in the kitchen working on dinner while Jim and Roy found themselves sitting at the dining room table while Evelyn was scanning all the books on the shelves.

"Find anything interesting?" Kate steps up to Evelyn.

"Rick's taste is diverse, I don't know anyone who swings as far across the types of books as this." Evelyn admits.

"Rick is an avid reader, much like myself. We both like to get lost in a good book and let the troubles of the day disappear." Kate admits.

Evelyn had a question and wasn't sure how to ask it without sounding, … "Are you and Rick, …?"

"Together, … yes, we are." Kate holds up her left had to show the engagement ring.

"WOW, that is a lot of ring. I haven't seen anything in the papers about you two." Evelyn questions while holding Kate's hand to get a good look at the ring on her finger. "It must be really new if you had to use tape to keep it in place."

"We haven't found the time to have it altered yet, and yes it is. It would be kind of you to not mention it to anyone just yet." Kate knew she would end up in the papers eventually, it was just a fact of life. However they had to deal with Gina and Meredith first.

"My lips are sealed." Evelyn smiles at Kate, not that she couldn't help but notice the age difference.

"Mom?" Alexis suddenly showed up next to Kate, who smiled brightly Evelyn noticed.

"It's a little boring for you isn't. I'm sorry honey." Kate stroked Alexis's hair and bent down to kiss the top of her head.

"We really should have brought our daughter. We just automatically assumed, … Sorry Alexis. My daughter would have loved to meet you." Maybe next time Evelyn thinks, if there is a next time.

Roy had done his best all through dinner not to look at Johanna very often and the conversation never even strayed into talking about Bracken. It was like they just knew Evelyn knew nothing about what he had done or was doing, which was the truth.

"Everyone ready for dessert?" Rick asks. "Good, we just have to go get it." Rick didn't wait for anyone to say a word.

"Come on, you can help me pick one when we get there." Rick offers to Evelyn.

"I don't really, …." Evelyn tried to get out of this idea, besides she didn't really have any interest in dessert.

"Nonsense, you're the guest. We need to choose one you like to eat also. I was thinking an ice cream cake. The place is only about a mile from here." Rick offers holding out his hand.

"Ice cream." Alexis was smiling, which is what did in Evelyn. Kids and their smiles always got to her.

"Fine, I'll help you pick one." Evelyn caves in.

"We're taking your car Kate, since mine has the child seat in it still." Rick tells her and pulls the spare keys out of the kitchen drawer. "Give us about half an hour or so." Rick tells them and escorts Evelyn down to Kate's Jag.

"Why don't you go wash up and play in your room while we wait for ice cream honey." Kate asks of Alexis.

"Okay mom." And gets a hug and a kiss from Kate as they watch her climb the stairs.

After Alexis is gone. "We need to talk Roy." Kate turns on Roy. They were going to end Bracken.

It took Kate and Johanna telling Roy everything they knew before Roy came around and confirmed that he had been building up a file that could damage Bracken that he was using to keep his family safe.

"I didn't know you had gone to Lockwood, he would have likely killed you Johanna. Or had Coonan do it for him." Roy points out.

"I didn't know anything about Lockwood at the time. Not until Katie here told me. How could a war vet be mixed up in all this?" Johanna had thought he sounded safe.

"A lot of vets came back changed from the war, especially the ones that liked all the killing. Men like Lockwood and Coonan, as well as countless others. Wars and seeing death, being the cause of death can change you. A lot of them have trouble adjusting to civilian life. Can't fit in, can't find and keep a job, so they hire themselves out." Roy explains.

"We need to take Bracken down Roy, he has got to go. If we don't he's just going to keep on killing till he makes it to the presidency, and once he's there he'll have the FBI, CIA and others doing his dirty work. You, even with your file, won't last 2 seconds. Neither will your family." Kate points out.

"And we have thought up a plan when we use that recording I have, we just need to bring in a few people to make it work." Johanna offers.

That had Roy's attention, since when that tape got used with his voice on it, he was going to prison, and it would destroy his family.

"We need a few people that Bracken hasn't gotten to, ones who will be careful with what they learn." Kate points out.

"We want to turn you into another FBI like undercover agent, only you will be local NYPD at the time, and with Armen dead you no longer had a contact." Johanna tells him. "We just need some FBI guys that will go along with this plan."

"Turn me into an officer that has gone rogue?" Roy questions.

"Would you prefer to be dead?" Kate questions.

"Besides after they dig into Bracken after the fact they aren't going to question why you were paranoid about including other people." Johanna adds.

A deep undercover police officer turned precinct captain who didn't trust anyone so he had gone rogue. If, and that was a big IF, he came out of this alive the best he could hope for was being fired. If he was really lucky they would suspend him without pay. Anything better than that was out of the question. He just didn't have that kind of luck.

"Deal. … I'll have a copy of everything I have sent here before the end of the week." Roy offers.

Rick and Evelyn returned with their ice cream cake and Roy and Evelyn left an hour after finishing dinner while they talked over coffee. Evelyn left with a signed copy of one of Rick's books.

**It is now one week later:**

Johanna was going stir crazy since she was still trapped inside and out of contact with her staff at work, so she didn't know what they were doing. Rick and Kate always took the land line phone in the loft to bed with them each night, much to Johanna's disgust.

Roy's file had arrived earlier today and Johanna had it spread out all over the dining room table with Jim and Alexis looking it over. Rick, Kate and the house phone were out of the loft since they had arranged a meeting at Black Pawn to go over Rick's new Derrick Storm series of books, even though he hadn't finished typing the first one from memory yet.

Gina was there along with another representative from Black Pawn.

"You've already received the outline of the series that I have in mind. There are a number of book titles that could be created in the future." Rick points out.

"It looks good Richard in concept, however we have a problem with a number of your items that you have requested to be included in your contract." Gina points out.

"Here it comes." Kate whispers.

"Which are?" Rick asks.

"First why is she here?" Gina nods at Kate.

"Kate is my fiancé, we will be getting married in a few months, so she has a vested interest in these proceedings." Rick points out.

"That will not be acceptable Richard, we can't advertise you as a major writer being married let alone to a ch, …. Someone so young." Gina points out.

"You will also have noticed that part of the contract stipulates that you stay out of my personal life and do nothing that alters my life without my permission, and for your information my current publicist has been replaced with some else." Rick points out.

"You replaced Paula?" Gina was shocked and since her mouth was temporarily on the table top before she recovered, she wasn't expecting that.

"I already have 6 books in the Derrick Storm series in mind. Black Pawn has been good to me in the past so I'm giving you first shot at my next book series." Rick tells them.

"Are you suggesting that you would leave Black Pawn?" The man with Gina asks.

"Correct, you can either accept ALL of my conditions or I go find a publisher that will. Someone who will not insert themselves in my personal life in any matter." Rick points out.

"Can you give me a few minutes Mr. Castle?" And the guy with Gina gets up with Gina starting to follow. "Stay here." He tells Gina and exits the room.

Gina sits back down and glares at both of them, however mostly at Kate.

He had been gone for a while now, working on 30 minutes. It got Rick to lean towards Kate. "It would appear you were right, they already have designs for me." Rick talks to Kate softly, though loud enough for Gina to hear him.

"And Gina." Kate points out by the looks Gina has been sending her way.

"I don't know who you think you are, …" Gina started but was interrupted by Kate.

"I'm Rick's fiancé and we're getting married and you don't have to like it, however you do have to leave my fiancé and our family alone from here on out, and that includes my daughter. That's who I am." Kate fires her shot directly at Gina, skipping the shot across her bow, since Rick has already fired that shot.

Gina was spared making a comment when the guy came back into the conference room. "Black Pawn has agreed to make a contract offer for your next three books. There will be a book sale number included into the contract that will protect Black Pawn while offering you additional money should that number be exceeded."

Kate leans towards Rick. "My money is on them contacting a couple of other publishing companies." Kate speaks softly.

"Indeed we did." Black Pawn quickly found out that Rick had made a few inquiries to other publishers to find out if they were interested, and they were much to Black Pawns pain. "I can also tell you that there will be a clause in the contract dealing with the number of books sold, that will protect Black Pawn while if that number is exceeded you will be financially rewarded above and beyond any of your previous contracts.

We've also agreed to provide you with a different representative for Black Pawn. This person will now be your primary contact and editor, after you sign of course." The man adds.

"**WHAT!?" **Gina yells out. "You can't do this!" Gina was up out of her chair and staring him down.

"Mr. Castle's request that you be replaced was quite specific and Black Pawn has agreed to that stipulation." He informs Gina and turns to Rick and Kate. "The contract terms for you and your lawyer will be available in about a week. I think you will be happy with it."

Rick and Kate soon left and could hear Gina screaming at him as they exited the office. "It sounds like Gina is pissed." Rick points out.

"I don't care just so long as she stays very far away from my husband." Kate points out.

It left one stop before going back to the loft.

Rick and Kate had been sitting in the front office for only a few minutes when the receptionist took a call. "He will see you now. If you will follow me." And the receptionist escorts them down a hallway to the last door on the left, where she knocks and opens the door and lets them in.

"Mr. Castle and Ms. Beckett, it's a pleasure to meet you two." Henry shakes both their hands. "Please take a seat and we can go over everything that I have found." And Henry moves around back to his desk.

"I have taken everything you have given me and done a search along with a review of your finances. As you know you own the loft you are staying in and is paid for. In addition you own four other buildings in New York City all of which are providing you with a steady income. Each is being administered by a separate company that you have a contract with. They handle all of the maintenance items and utilize money that is held in a separate account that is earning a small amount of interest.

Per your request that company is presently going through an audit of their books, however since your property is not the only real estate that they handle I don't expect to find any problems.

In addition you own a 1999 Aston Martin as well as a 1999 Jaguar. For those purchases I can find title of ownership with your signatures, however I'm unable to tell you at this time where the money to buy them came from. I'm still looking into that.

In addition to that I found a villa on the island of St. Martin. It is a three story villa, 5,000 sq. ft. of space, built in 1989, 6 bedrooms, 6.5 bathrooms in total. It came furnished with appliances, pool, terrace, patio, cable TV, ocean view, maid's quarters with a maid's bathroom, in house laundry, and mature tropical trees. The main house has 4 bedrooms, it sits on ½ acre of land and is located on a cliff side. It even has a cistern that allows you to live off of city water." Henry passes out the pictures that he has of it from the listing.

"You bought it for $1.3 million, however I have not been able to track where the money to purchase it came from, however I do have a copy of the deed that is in your name." Henry hands over the paperwork along with the address of the house.

"Oh it also appears you have a car located there. It's a 1999 Volkswagen GTI. It, like your other cars and this villa, are paid for, I'm simply having trouble figuring out where the money came from." Henry is forced to admit.

"Plus there is one more piece of real estate that you own. This one happens to be in Oxford, England." Henry tells them.

"OXFORD!?" Kate found her voice first. "As in University of Oxford?" Kate's mouth is hanging open.

"Correct, it like all the other items is paid for and proving to be difficult to figure out how it was paid for." Henry hands over the paperwork.

257 Banbury Road, Oxford, OX2, 7HN

4/5 bedrooms, drawing room, study, entrance hall, kitchen breakfast room, dining room, sitting room, reception hall, exposed timbers, high ceilings, leaded light windows with original shutters, oak floors, period fireplace, wood burning stove, comprised of two floors.

"It is about 7 to 10 minutes from the University of Oxford." Henry adds. "In addition like the villa on St. Martin this house also comes with a car."

Henry handed over the paperwork for it as well. "It's another 1999 Jaguar XKR convertible." Kate points out, getting Rick to take the paperwork for it out of her hands to read it himself. This one was a different color however. "I don't know how to drive on the wrong side of the road." Kate points out.

"OH, I also found this. It is something you will need to search for since I don't have the originals." Henry points out and hands each of them a sheet of paper.

"This says we have dual citizenship with Great Britain. Meaning we both have UK passports at the loft somewhere." Rick points out.

"Oh and this." Henry had one more item to hand them.

"RICK! … This says Alexis also has dual citizenship." Kate's mouth was on the floor, getting Rick to rip the paper out of Kate's hands.

"This doesn't make sense, Alexis was born in California. I was there when she was brought home." Rick doesn't understand any of this.

"I also have the paperwork ready for you as requested. All you have to do Kate is write your initials in the yellow areas and sign your signature where indicated by the tabs on the side. Once complete those the adoption papers of one Alexis Harper Castle will be complete for Katherine Houghton Beckett.

Meredith Lee has already signed over her rights to Alexis in the divorce papers. You sign these and you will have legal standing for all things that deal with Alexis. Hospital, schools, etc." Henry tells Kate, who wastes no time in signing the papers.

Alexis was now officially hers, just like she had been dreaming of for what seemed like years.

"If you can't find the passports, keys to either of the houses or the cars let me know and I'll see what I can arrange." Henry shakes their hands and escorts them out.

Kate stops Rick in the building lobby downstairs by wrapping her arms around him and kissing him for all she was worth. "Thank you!" Kate starts blinking back tears. Alexis was hers!

"We have some searching to do when we get home. Passports and keys." Rick points out still holding onto Kate.

"Likely in your study somewhere." Kate offers.

"Or in the safe that is in the study." Rick offers.

"Whatever, I can't thank you enough babe. You didn't have to let me sign adoption papers." Kate still didn't believe Rick let her.

"Nonsense. You're her mother, even if you are too young to have given birth to her. Alexis, today's Alexis doesn't remember Meredith. To her you are her mother, and you deserve to be, so you need to legally be her mother. I'm just sorry I can't change the birth certificate to your name." Rick did it because they were a family. A family he had always prayed for.

"We should get home so I can start searching while you talk to your mother. See what she found in Roy's paperwork. See what the difference is between what we remember and what he has." Rick points out.

"A lot of time has or in this case hasn't passed, so there is likely going to be something." Kate points out, getting Rick to agree.

"Good thing we have 2 lawyers to tell us if what we have is enough to put him in prison." Rick adds.


	15. Chapter 15

**It is now one week later: (January 25, 1999)**

"I WANT OUT AND YOU CAN'T STOP ME!" Johanna had, had all she could take of being locked up inside Rick's loft. It was nice and for a place to stay it was really nice, but it was a prison and no matter how nice it was it was still a prison.

"HAND OVER THE CAR KEYS KATIE." Johanna held out her hand.

"Mom." Kate moaned.

"Don't mom me Katie. I've been locked up in this place for two weeks now. Everyone in this place has been outside at least once, even Alexis has been outside." Johanna waves her hand towards the bedroom that Alexis was in at the moment. "So either hand over the car keys or I'm walking out the front door and there is nothing you can do to stop me."

"**RICK, … DAD!" **Kate yells out for reinforcements.

"Mom wants the car keys or she is walking out the front door." Kate tells the two of them after they show up. "I think mom is cracking." Kate whispers the last part.

"You want cracked I'll give you cracked, now hand over the keys." Johanna stuck out her hand.

Rick handed over the keys to the Aston Martin. "Take the car booster seat out of the passenger seat and leave it behind somewhere, and here is the card to open the garage gate to get in and out with. Just press home on the GPS unit and it'll give you a route to get home with." Rick tells her.

"RICK!?" Kate didn't like this idea.

"Your mother has been locked up in here for the last two weeks. No phone, nothing to keep her occupied. Your mother has dropped her cases and put her life on hold.

Oh, you're going to need these keys too, they are the keys to the front door of my house out in the Hamptons. I only bought it last year and been there only once since then, … I think." Rick tried to think back.

"Anyway, all you have to do is press favorites on the GPS and scroll down to select the beach house and it'll tell you how to get there. You'll have to stop and buy some food for the kitchen. Just the perishables, everything else is in the freezer. Oh and the pool is heated in case you are brave enough, you just have to turn it on a few hours ahead of time to give it time to warm up the water." Rick adds.

Johanna took all the keys and hugged Rick. "You're a good man Rick. Katie has made a wise choice. Come on we have to pack." Johanna grabs Jim's hand and drags him upstairs.

"Have you lost your mind?" Kate turns on Rick.

"Think about it detective Beckett." Rick holds up his first finger. "Your mother is going stir crazy and needs out." Rick holds up his second finger. "My car in case you failed to notice is in my real name, Richard Rodgers." Rick holds up his third finger. "The loft, and the house out in the Hamptons are also in my real name. While the houses in St, Martin and Oxford are in both our names, Rodgers and Beckett." Rick holds up his fourth finger. "This gets your mother out of downtown New York making it less likely that she will be seen by Bracken or any of his men." Rick looks at Kate to see if he is getting through to her.

"Detective Beckett?" Kate glares at him.

Rick starts to chuckle if that was the only thing she took out of all that. "Counselor Beckett than. … Or perhaps Prime Minister Beckett." Rick smiles at Kate.

That was when it hit her. "We could move to Oxford, move my credits to there from Stanford and take my law classes there. I could walk to school. Become a lawyer in England and maybe even become Prime Minister instead of the first female court justice. …. We have a house, passports that prove dual citizenship.

The States would never elect a woman president, however England would." Kate launched herself into Rick's arms and kissed him. "Have I told you how much I love you?"

Rick started to open his mouth as he actually did try to think back to the last time Kate had told him that she loved him. "Don't answer that. … I love you Richard Castle, so very, very much."

"How is your wall deconstruction coming along?" Rick asks while he still has Kate's attention.

"I've still got a few bricks to go yet, but I'm getting there. I only want you Rick, just you. … Well maybe Alexis and any other children we have together." Kate smiles up at Rick.

"We do have to work on making that baby." Rick was thinking of the one they lost.

"We've been doing that for days babe, and I've not taken any pills since we arrived at this point in time." Kate could still hear her mother talking to her about the noise she makes with making love to Rick. It had been embarrassing in the extreme.

It suddenly hit Kate that with her parents gone, she could stop trying to remain quiet, which was proving hard to do. Between what Rick did to her and the tattoo's that they had, Kate had found it near impossible to remain quiet.

Kate had gone back to kissing Rick and was fast approaching the need to start removing some clothes, even though they had made love to each other just this morning, when Kate heard someone clear their throat. "Sorry, we're all packed." Johanna points out.

Rick helped carry their bags down to his Aston Martin and removed the booster seat and put it in the back seat of Kate's car. With Jim at the wheel and Johanna in the passenger seat, Rick helped them with the GPS on how to get there and how to get back. Plus made sure they had money, since they couldn't be using their credit cards or it would give away where they were.

"Just don't do anything that can be traced and you should be fine. If you have to call, don't talk for over a minute and try not to use the house phone if you do call." Rick warns both of them.

"Please be careful mom, losing you once was painful enough." Kate didn't know if she would come out the other side if she lost her mom again.

"We'll be careful Katie. I've left you two everything I have on Bracken. You two need to be careful too. You talk to the wrong people, …" Johanna left off the 'He'll kill you too' part.

"We actually have an idea about that." Kate tells her.

Kate had her back to Rick who had his arms wrapped around Kate from behind. "They better be ok out there Castle." As they watch Jim drive out of the underground garage.

"There is no paperwork that should lead Bracken or his men to them out there, so long as they don't do anything to bring attention to themselves. It's going to be cold out there and all the summer vacationers should be gone, leaving only the winter residents. The Hamptons should be just about empty this time of year." Rick points out. "Come on, we have some planning to do."

Back upstairs Rick set to work booking a private jet to get them to Chicago, a suite at the Waldorf Astoria (1,124 sq. ft., furnished outdoor terrace (likely too cold outside to put it to use), fireplace, king-sized bed, living room with dining table, queen-sized sofa bed, master bathroom with separate powder room). All in the name of Richard Rodgers for tomorrow and the three nights after that.

Next they boxed up everything they had on Bracken and had it sent overnight to their hotel.

They had elected to use a car service while in Chicago.

Kate wouldn't let Rick find a babysitter for Alexis, not wanting to let the girl out of her sight. Not that she had any training to protect her with, or a weapon of any kind. "She's our daughter Castle, she goes where we go, end of story."

They got the car service to drop them off at the FBI office in Chicago. Doing this was a risk, but they needed help, and since Bracken was in DC and New York, it was hoped that they could find someone in Chicago that would listen and not already in Bracken's pay.

The FBI office in Chicago turned out to be an interesting building. It was mostly glass, about 12 floors tall with what looked like long penthouse floor on top. There looked to be a three story parking garage next to it.

They had asked to see someone from the serial killer investigation team. It was hoped that going this route would steer them clear of any corrupt FBI men who would then report directly to Bracken. So staying away from politics and drugs seemed to be the right choice, or so they hoped.

They had to answer a lot of questions before they found themselves in a conference room, waiting.

Finally a woman and a black guy walked in. "I'm special agent Jordan Shaw and this is agent Jason Avery. You two have presented us with quite the story." Jordan points out.

"We've provided a summary for you." Rick tells them and slides a copy for each across the table.

Jordan's face remained unchanged while she was reading. Avery however changed his facial features as he read each section.

"I'm reading where you have hard evidence to back up your claims." Jordan points out.

"We do, hard copies of the bank account, cashier's checks, and countless other items. As well as a copy of the recording where he orders the murder of someone." Rick confirms.

"A certain Johanna Beckett." Jordan reads from the summary.

"My mother." Kate tells her.

"And your mother is where?" Jordan asks.

"Somewhere safe and out of Bracken's eyes or the eyes of his military trained hired killers." Kate tells them.

"We are going to need to talk with her at some point, but we can work that out later. We are also going to need to talk with this Roy Montgomery, captain of the 12th precinct in New York." Jordan adds.

"You are going to need to be very careful who you talk to. With his current position in the Senate, he will be privy to secret briefings and we are pretty sure he has ears inside the FBI and likely the CIA as well." Rick cautions.

That statement brought up the ire inside both Jordan and Avery. The possibility that there were dirty FBI agents might not surprise her, they were human after all, but it still pissed both of them off.

"If you'll give us a few moments." Jordan asked and left with Avery in tow.

It took just over an hour before they returned. In that time Rick and Kate were served coffee and a choice of Danishes to eat.

"Here is an outline of how we will proceed from this point." Jordan slides across the paper to each of them.

Rick was a fast reader and waited for Kate to catch up. It had several points, from how Jordan and her team were to get copies of everything Rick and Kate had on Bracken, to when and where they wanted to interview Johanna, Jim and Roy. There was even a preliminary time frame of when items would be completed.

"How long are you two in Chicago?" Jordan asks.

"We are presently booked for 3 more nights at the Waldorf." Rick tells them. Telling them didn't seem to matter much since they were already in pretty deep.

"We may need to extend that, if we do we'll move you to one of the local FBI safe houses that we have. We're going to need to know where your parents are located eventually too, as well as possibly move them to an FBI safe house as well.

Is your daughter in school yet?" Jordan looks at Alexis who had been very quiet through all of this.

"Not 'til school starts in the fall, though we have considered having her enter a pre-school." Rick responds.

"We'll see what we can do." Jordan tells them and Rick, Kate and Alexis soon find themselves back at the Waldorf with instructions to keep themselves available after Jordan and Avery escorted them there and picked up the copy of everything that had been shipped out to them.

Jordan had visited Rick, Kate and Alexis at their hotel only twice after that and were allowed to go home at the end of their stay, after making arrangements for Jordan and Avery to meet Johanna and Jim someplace. Jordan made her own arrangements to meet with Roy Montgomery.

**It is now one month later: (February 28, 1999)**

Jordan and Avery were meeting Rick and Kate at an FBI safe house that all of them had been moved to just a few days ago. Johanna had, had her month of freedom out in the Hamptons so she was in a better mood about being locked up again.

"Let me get this right. You believe that Bracken is going to convince or pay off some people to hijack passenger airliners and crash them into the World Trade Center Towers, in the hopes that they collapse killing thousands?" Jordan was having trouble with this one, especially when they had no hard evidence. Even though they did have flight numbers and where the flights were going to originate, even how these people could be trained to fly locally.

"Think about it. He wants to get elected and get the popular strong vote about the actions he takes in response to this attack. Push through the removal of a number of civil liberties in the name of National Security. Hold citizens indefinitely without charges, monitor all phone calls without the need for warrants, search anyone or anyplace they chose.

People will be mad and willing to listen to Bracken as he goes on his witch hunt for the people that did this. While at the same time use the FBI, CIA, NSA or any other letter combination to remove people who know his secret. Including the hired killers who know too much.

He'll never make it to the Presidency unless he appears to be squeaky clean. What better way to look that clean than to use the FBI, CIA and others to clean up his mess?" Rick offers.

The look on Avery's face told Jordan that it did sound fundamentally possible, even if it was farfetched. Still the FBI would be on the lookout now for anyone trying to do just that.

"We have your statements along with those of Roy Montgomery. At the moment we are working on giving Roy the cover that he needs to cover himself. Keep in mind that even after we arrest Bracken, there will be a trial that all of you will be required to be at as well as Roy and his family.

We may have your hard evidence as well as what we are gathering even as we speak. It just will not be over until he has been convicted. There will of course be appeals to his conviction, and the state of New York hasn't executed anyone in years, so he will be around for years to come." Jordan reminds them.

"Meaning we will not be safe for years to come." Johanna points out.

"We can only keep you here until Bracken is arrested, after that we are required to release you. You will need to be vigilant in your security for likely years to come. We are about to blow up all his plans and that is going to make him mad." Jordan points out the obvious.

"On a side note, we have noticed an increase in the drug trade in New York City. It would appear that Bracken is trying to increase his war chest with drug money." Jordan informs them.

That had Rick and Kate smiling since they knew they still had all $400 million plus that used to be Bracken's. They still had yet to figure out what to do with it. It was blood money, people's lives were being destroyed to make this money. Not that Bracken obviously cared.

**It was now one month later: (Late March, 1999)**

It was almost noon and Rick, Kate, Alexis, Johanna, Jim, Roy and Evelyn were standing outside of the capitol building and watched as a cuffed William H. Bracken was escorted by Sheriff Deputies under the watchful eyes of the FBI and into one of the numerous cars that were waiting for him.

Those same Sheriff Deputies and FBI men had entered the capitol building while Bracken was at the speaking podium spouting out just what the voters wanted to hear, all of which he had no intention of following through with.

He had been read his rights and cuffed in front of all his peers in the senate, making it clear that they would be next if any of them decided to follow in his footsteps. Brackens disgrace had only just begun.

Jordan walked up to the group of them. "Enjoying the show?" Jordan asks smiling.

"I'll enjoy it better AFTER his appeals have been completed and rejected." Kate points out.

"Oh he's not getting out of this one. We've already issued warrants for his offices, his apartment here in DC as well as his listed primary residences. His support staff have already all been detained and are being questioned.

There are arrest warrants out for Dick Coonan as well as Hal Lockwood. After we are done searching everything he owns there will likely be more arrests. Most likely some of them will be offered plea deals to roll over on Bracken. His time of seeing the light of day except for that half hour each day all alone in the prison yard are over." Jordan was happy. Plus getting Bracken was a feather in her cap and has allowed her to step one more rung up the ladder of the FBI.

Jordan was about to become the #3 person in the entire FBI. She owed the people standing next to her for a lot of that and she knew it.

"Roy, here is your paperwork. The mayor of New York City, police commissioner and the Governor have all been informed of your undercover operation with the blessings of the FBI. It should be more than enough to secure your job as Captain of the 12th precinct." Jordan was only too happy to hand them over. "And if they don't give you a healthy raise, let me know and I'll set them straight." Jordan was actually kinda hoping that the NYPD gave him a little grief, Jordan so wanted to lower the boom on someone.

"Kate these are your papers. I don't know what your plans for the future are, however if anyone questions you, just hand them these and that should get them to shut up." Jordan hands Kate a large vanilla envelope.

"And Mr. Castle, I would really like if you would sign this for me." Jordan hands over the first book in the Derrick Storm series that had only been out a few days and was already a big seller. Black Pawn was already happy, and Rick liked Gina's replacement. Kate liked HIM even more for obvious reasons.

"I've heard rumors that there will be additional books in the Derrick Storm series." Jordan adds.

Rick was smiling since he had the time to type out 5 of the books from memory so far, and he hadn't even started on the three Nikki Heat books.

"I'll make sure you get an autographed copy of each one." Rick adds smiling.

"I'll keep my eyes open for my mail each time I hear that a new book comes out." Jordan was smiling.

"I still have work to do today. It's been a pleasure meeting all of you. Yell if there is anything any of you need. Just don't ask me to fix a parking ticket." Jordan jokes and walks off toward Agent Avery since they still had to process Bracken.

All of them including Roy and Evelyn's little girl were in the loft relaxing at the dining room table sipping coffee while Alexis and their daughter were upstairs in Alexis's bedroom playing.

"I never dreamed this day would come." Roy points out. He was sure he would either be in prison best case or dead, semi-worse case, with his entire family dead worst case.

"I can't believe you got yourself into that mess." Evelyn points out. What he did after the fact was the husband she knew and married.

"I was a different person back then. The police force was also different. Things have changed since then." Roy admits.

"Just don't let anyone else suffer what you suffered Roy. Find and train the best detectives you can find, make the NYPD different." Kate offers.

"You planning on joining Kate? You might make a great homicide detective. You certainly have the drive for it." Roy questions.

"I actually did think about it." Kate already knew what her life was like in the future being a homicide detective. "We presently have other plans at the moment. If it doesn't work out, I may be back."

**It is now one week later: (Early April, just after Rick's birthday)**

The loft looked weird to all of them. The furniture all had clothes draped over them. The water was going to be turned off as they left. Everything that could be unplugged already was and there was a pile of suitcases at the front door.

They had said their goodbye's to Kate's parents and Martha and her husband last night. Rick had transferred almost all of Martha's money into a separate account that she only had access to and needed her code and pin number for. Plus Rick had all of those as well and had every intention of checking up on his mother from time to time and to remind her yet again, not to give out those codes or pin numbers to anyone, including her husband.

Martha may still end up divorced, but this time she wasn't going to lose all of her money, all $3 million of it.

"Everything ready babe?" Kate asks standing next to Alexis at the front door.

"All of the paperwork has been submitted and the first year of tuition for both of them has already been paid. You have your letter from Stanford about what credits can and have been transferred. We have all of Alexis's records including all of our medical records.

Black Pawn has been made aware of where we will be likely for years to come. As soon as our agent finds a renter for the loft that will take care of that. Your parents have both of our cars since we have one waiting for us." Rick offers everything he can think of.

"We may have passports but we still need ID cards, start up the power, water, phone, TV and whatever. I hope we are ready for this." Kate didn't know about part of this plan. She was just thankful that she could walk to class, or maybe buy a bicycle or scooter even.

"We'll adapt Kate. Plus once we are there we can start looking for a venue." Rick adds, getting Kate to smile wide.

Kate had, had her ring adjusted so that the tape was gone now and she was dying to finally, finally be married, after all this time. Time? It still felt strange to Rick and Kate. They now had so much Extra Time for each other than they could possibly have wished for. They still had no answer as to why Alexis remembered only certain things, however if she did remember all of it Alexis would likely need therapy. A 16 year old young woman with memories that lasted 15 years in a 5 year old body.

It was enough to get Kate to bend over and kiss the top of Alexis's head, getting Alexis to look up at Kate. "I just love you honey." Which earned Kate a hug.

They were soon sitting at the gate with their boarding passes for their flight, first class tickets naturally.

JFK to LHR, leave 8:05a, arrive 7:55p. $4,977 per seat for 2 adults and 1 child.

Since they had to learn, Rick had looked up what it took to take the underground to the closest station they could use to get to their house in Oxford.

Kate was leaning way back till she was lying on Rick's legs as she screamed out her latest orgasm, the first in the new house. While Rick was moaning loudly as he reached his orgasm filling Kate, not caring if this got Kate pregnant or not.

Kate was lying there when she felt it and heard it. "Baby?" Kate thought of her love for Rick.

"Kate?" Rick thought about himself wrapping his arms around Kate and merging with her soul so he could get Kate to feel the love he has for her.

Kate was still lying on his legs feeling herself slowly come down from the high of her orgasm as her body quivered. "I can see you. … I can feel you." Kate never said a word as she still had her eyes close while still lying back on Rick's legs. "I love you so much baby, so very much."

Kate could feel him and see him in her mind as Rick could feel Kate and see her in his mind. "No more walls my love." Rick thought as he wrapped himself around Kate's heart.

"No more walls." Kate answered back and merged her soul with that of Rick's. The first of many times to come in the future.

They spent the next day walking the ground of the University of Oxford. It had Kate smiling wide as they looked at everything they could. Next came a very careful and slow car ride into town to do a lot of grocery shopping.

"Be it ever so humble, Oxford England is home." Rick points out as he suddenly swerves back into the wrong lane, meaning the correct lane. "It's a good thing this car is an automatic." Rick was sure if it was a manual he would shoot himself soon.

**It is now one month later: (Early May)**

"I'm sorry miss, but I can't let you enter unless you tell me who you are here to see and if they will let you up." The doorman stops her from entering.

"I'm here to see my husband and my daughter, now get out of my way." She tells him and attempts to step past him.

"I am sorry miss but you will have to tell me who you are here to see." He doesn't' let her past him.

"Richard Castle and my daughter, now let me pass." Meredith tries to get past him again dragging and carrying her luggage.

"I'm sorry Miss, but the Castle family no longer lives here. So I'm afraid I can't let you enter." The doorman tells her.

"MOVED!? Where did they move to?" Meredith was in trouble if Richard wasn't here.

"I'm afraid I don't have that information miss. I do however know that you are not Richard's wife since he is likely on his honeymoon even as we speak." The doorman tells Meredith. It was a lie and he knew it, however Kate's instructions about anyone who showed up were quite clear, especially if one of them looked like the description Kate had given him of Meredith.

That and the $2,000 that Kate had paid him for this, plus the promise of a Christmas present for years to come if he did. He would have done it without the money or the present however. And meeting this lady only reinforced his desire to do as Kate had asked of him.

"If you don't leave miss, I will be forced to call the police and have you removed by force." The doorman told Meredith.

Meredith was still standing there with her mouth hanging open wide. "Married? … Honeymoon?" Meredith's plans just went poof in a puff of smoke. What the hell was she going to do now?


	16. Chapter 16

**Epilogue**

Ellie was striding from her transit stop to the building that she worked in, though that was slightly incorrect, since she didn't work in the building, she worked under the building.

Ellie was long legged just like her grandmother and if you looked from a distance you wouldn't be able to tell the two apart, except for the hair color that she got from her mother.

Technically Ellie knew that she wasn't her grandmother by birth, but to her she was the only woman she knew that would fit that term, plus she had loved, was falling in love with her like she was her grandmother, so that counted in her book.

Ellie also had the same air about her, from what she could see daily. Stood upright and walked with confidence, self assured and knew just what she was doing. It didn't hurt that she was in love and was loved back just as passionately.

Getting into the building was easy; it was after that, that things got complicated. There was a normal reception desk where packages were dropped off; guests if there were any would come. It was open and airy and was tastefully decorated.

It was the first door you came to after showing your badge that you got buzzed to go through that was your first obstacle. One through that door you were left in a foyer area. To get through the next door you had to stand there and allow the system to scan you and apply your hand to the reader pad.

After that you found yourself between a bank of elevators, most went up however only one went down. You had to call for the right one using a separate up button. Once inside you had to go through a hand scanner to get the elevator to go down.

The second you stepped out you were in a glass enclosed foyer with guards all around. There were 6 on duty at all times with another 24 always on duty just down each hallway from this foyer.

Here you went through another scanner and had everything you brought with you individually scanned, having to pass it through a special door into a separate room just for that. This allowed you access to the only elevator on this level. That elevator also only went down.

Ellie's first stop for the day was a meeting in a conference room that was beyond boring. It went over security measures that had been taken inside and outside the building, followed by a financial review as well as a review of all the personnel that worked under her on her project, well mostly her project.

Two torturous hours later and Ellie was going down again to her office where she threw her bag into along with her coat since it was cold outside. It was Colorado in December, of course it was cold.

Ellie went straight to the control room and sat down next to Cynthia whom Ellie worked with. "Hi Chief, glad you could make it." Cynthia teased.

"I knew I shouldn't have let you watch that old Get Smart movie last night." Ellie moaned.

"Oh posh, you enjoyed it just as much as I did, including everything during and after the movie." Cynthia argued back. It got Ellie to start to blush since it was all true. "Plus getting into this place reminds me of that movie." Getting Ellie to chuckle since it was almost true.

"Has Earth PX-34 completed its cycle?" Ellie asks.

"Yup, while you were in your morning meeting in fact. That makes our fourth success to date. … It's turning out that your grandmother being into kinky things makes this work so well." Cynthia mentions, not missing the irony of the situation. Using the tattoo to cover the actually physical shock that they all received was proving to be helpful.

"Don't go getting any ideas, we are not getting those tattoo's." Ellie tells Cynthia.

"And here I thought you loved me." Cynthia fake pouts.

"I do love you and you know it. That's why we are married unless you have forgotten." Ellie lifts her left hand and shakes it to show off the engagement ring Cynthia had gotten her.

"A girl likes to hear it too you know." Cynthia answers back.

Ellie turns to look at Cynthia. "We need to get far enough into this project to show that it can work before we start having kids. We talked about this last night. The two of us are the only two that really understand how this works. Maternity leave will slow us down.

And before you go there again, I do want to have babies with you. I do, we just need to wait a little. The more successes like we've been having the sooner that day will come." Ellie reminds her again.

"I'm sorry Ell, my insecurities sometimes get the best of me. I do know that and I do love you, more than I've ever loved anyone. I still don't see what you see in me." Cynthia wasn't as self secure of herself as Ellie was.

"That's because I see what you don't, but you will. One of these days you are going to look into the mirror with me standing right behind you and see what I see every day. Just don't give up on us Cee, we'll get there." What Ellie wanted to do was hug her and kiss her, and even though they promised each other to limit the PDA at work, Ellie got up out of her chair and kissed Cynthia with as much passion as she did last night, or even this morning for that matter.

Ellie sat back down after feeling the buzz that Cynthia always gave her when they touched and Ellie could see the same reaction on Cynthia's face. They were made for each other.

"Now, tell me how it went. Any deviations, no matter how small." Ellie asks of her.

They both knew that even having a pen drop in this location could lead to something happening later, creating a paradox that they couldn't fix.

"The only deviation that I could find was about your grandmother shrugging off her embarrassment about her tattoo a little faster this time. Kate actually went down to the beach with Alexis prior to her first pregnancy and took her wrap off and walked the beach with them.

Not that she didn't get noticed because she did. It looked like Alexis still had an issue with her mother's tattoo at first; however Kate did well to ease her fears." Cynthia comments.

"No other deviations? No one suddenly went out to get those same tattoos? No one showed up to take massive amounts of pictures, stopped her to ask about the tattoo and what it meant?" Ellie needed to be sure.

"Nope, Kate acted like it didn't exist and was soon forgotten. No copy cats, no internet inquiries, all was quiet." Cynthia confirms.

"Good, than let's get started on the next Earth, PX-35." Ellie instructs and starts adjusting her controls as does Cynthia.

It takes them almost 4 hours to find it and diagnose what they have found and why.

"Another radioactive ball of rock and dust." Ellie moans, since that made number 11 out of the 35 they have scanned so far. "Cause?" Ellie asks Cynthia.

"In this case it looks like Russia didn't back down during the Cuban missile crisis. Russian ships tried to run the blockade, and were fired upon. Only one was lost with all hands. However that action soon precipitated a change in tactics by the US and they invaded Cuba without knowing about all the tactical nukes that Russia had already sent, and Castro used them on the landing forces.

That seems to have kicked off a major ICBM launch that burnt the planet to a cinder." Cynthia explains as she examined her readings.

"That means there isn't one action that causes this reaction." Ellie points out.

That got Cynthia to shake her head. "At least none of them have been because of an asteroid strike, something we can't change."

"We need to get a handle on this, or we're going to lose more and more Earth's." Ellie moans.

"We haven't even figured out the ones where Germany conquers the world yet." Cynthia adds.

"That's the benefit of time, we can continue to study those and fix them, hopefully. At least all of those events seem to have a common action." Ellie points out. However their overall project supervisor chose this moment to enter the room.

"How did PX-34 go?" He asks.

"Perfectly sir, my grandparents being trapped together on those two islands caused them to fall in love. Having them lose a baby because of it only brought them closer." Ellie tells him.

"How did the jump to the house go this time?" He asks them.

"Much better than the times we didn't. My grandfather's tendency to overdo things got them a security system that stopped them from being killed in their sleep." Ellie was pleased to inform him.

"Excellent, I thought losing all three of them in the loft at the first planet was going to doom this project." He really was glad that it worked out, just for a different reason than Ellie's.

"I suggest you keep jumping them back to the house, alter the purchase papers for the house if you need to in case your grandfather isn't as prone to over doing things. We need to keep those two alive." He tells them.

"Now how did the jump to the date of your great grandmother's death go?" He asks next.

"A little difficult at first. The problem was what to do with Alexis's memories. Our first attempt she retained too many memories of her older self, and had trouble adapting to being a 5 year old again. Wiping her memories like we did the second time was also too extreme.

Leaving partial knowledge of Kate as her mother has been far more successful." Ellie tells him.

"And your great grandparents?" He asks, since having these three jump back to them was a risk.

"So far it has been 70/30 in our favor. They show some real issues adapting to the story my grandparents tell them and my great grandmother never leaves her belief that she needs to keep what she knows a secret in order to protect her family. In those cases Bracken kills all of them and goes on to be President and burn the planet in WWIII." Ellie states.

"How many Earth's have we saved so far from Bracken's greed for power and plunge the planet into its last world war?" He really wanted to support this project, it's just that he was under pressure to show results.

"Just the last 4 sir." Ellie knew that sounded bad, and if you focused on just that, well it was bad. "However you have to remember that out of those other 30 Earth's, 11 were already dead before my grandparents were even born.

Plus anticipating what people will do is not an exact science. Actually in order to stop Bracken from burning all of the Earth's is largely due to the actions my grandparents and great grandparents do to stop him." Ellie points out.

"Your two's design of this system is one of the greatest breakthroughs this planet has ever known. I don't need to remind you the number of people that don't see the need to interfere in the future of other Earth's from parallel dimensions, since they have no impact on us." He points out the fight that he has been battling from the beginning.

"That's just the point sir, it does." Ellie brings up her case yet again, even though she knows he has already heard it and believes her.

Ellie grabs her tablet and draws a circle. "This is us on our Earth in our dimension. While space may be vast, maybe even more so than even I can imagine." Which was saying something since Ellie was one of the smartest people on Earth.

"This may be us and everything looks fine, but all of this area out here are all of these other dimensions. And if you burn Earth to a cinder in all of them, you may not think that losing one little planet in the vastness of space would have any affect.

Problem is, it isn't all of that open space that we need to worry about. It's every Earth in every dimension is what actually surrounds us, just like every other planet out in space is surrounded by their planet in other dimensions.

If we allow all of them to burn, we in our dimension will be surrounded by dead Earth's that will eventually crush us, long before our sun burns out or explodes into a super nova. Possibly before we can create our first interstellar drive. Time and space just isn't what a lot of people think it is.

People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to affect, but actually, from a non-linier, non subjective point of view it is more like a big ball of wibbily wobbly timey wimey...stuff." Somehow Ellie just knew that went right over his head.

"We need as many Earth's to survive as we can. It's a political thing as to whether or not having an Earth controlled by Nazi Germany is a good thing or a bad thing. Time and space doesn't care who is in charge or how you behave. You could take the human race back to the stone age and it wouldn't matter. What matters is that Earth survives. As many Earth's as possible." Ellie ends her speech.

"We're fortunate that we found a common link with all the planets that still exist or haven't been taken over by Nazi Germany. Simple math tells us that eventually we will come across an Earth where the US didn't fight back against the Russians and that Russia is in charge of the planet. Again, that is a political matter. All we care about is that the Earth survives." Cynthia chimes in for the first time.

"And so far only your family is the only common link we are looking for?" He asks for an update.

"Yes sir. The FBI, CIA, AG and any other combination of letters you can think of are not yet interested in Bracken or how he makes it to the Presidency. It's only just before the button is pressed that someone finds something and tries to raise the alarm. It's just that by that time they are all working on other more pressing problems." Cynthia points out since gathering information on Earth's in other dimensions was her specialty.

While Ellie had worked out how to reach other Earth's it was Cynthia who had worked out how to make changes in the computer systems on these other Earth's without any of them noticing.

Cynthia was the one that bought the house's, cars, solved Kate's first marriage to that complete idiot she had married in a drunken escapade in Vegas. It was Cynthia who had made it possible for Rick to purchase the islands in the first place, since when she first found them, just one island alone was worth $39 million, let alone purchasing two of them. Plus Rick really didn't have that kind of money back then. Rich yes, just not that rich.

It was Cynthia that helped block Bracken from gaining his money back, since he had people more than capable of chasing down each account, not matter how careful Rick had been.

"And Earth PX-35?" He asks.

"Another radioactive ball of rock and dust. In this case it was because of the Cuban missile crisis sir." Ellie is forced to admit.

"Politics." He almost literally spitted the word out. "Politicians are going to be the death of all us." He had his own battles to fight. "I suppose it is inevitable that we would find Earths that killed themselves before Bracken did it for them." The human race was capable of a lot of things. Killing each other just happened to be one of them.

"Yes sir." Ellie didn't like it either. However Ellie did have a silver lining in all of this. The last 4 successes had the Castle's moving to England where Kate finished her schooling as did Alexis. In time Kate became Prime Minister of Great Britain after becoming a lawyer, just when they needed her most. A sudden surge in corruption had placed the country in a precarious position that Kate and fought to get them out of. Alexis's two brothers were still with them, though Ellie hadn't seen either of them for months now. It didn't help when they were all busy.

"Well keep it up you two and try and increase your victories. We were granted funding for another year this morning." He knew that would please them. "So get back to work and save PX-35." And walks back out.

"**YES!"** Cynthia raised her hands up in the air celebrating victory.

"You're first baby, we need my grandfather to buy those islands." Ellie tells Cynthia as they start work on PX-35.

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The last of the boxes in the loft went to a donation company. Even the kitchen was getting thin in the way of food. Rick had plans to empty it and clean it for the new tenants that had bought the place. They would have to starve for breakfast before driving for Jersey for the last time. Possibly the very last time ever.

"Have you loaded the car dad?" Alexis asks.

"All there is, is our suitcase's (?) that will get loaded in the morning and what is in the storage area in the garage." Rick tells her as he pulls out the last of almost everything so he can make dinner. The last dinner in the loft.

"I'll do it." Alexis offered and headed for the front door.

"Thanks, dinner will be ready soon so don't take too long." Rick called after her.

Alexis was out the door already when what Alexis had said registered in his brain. "ALEXIS WAIT!" Rick ran for the door but she was already in the elevator on her way down to the garage. "She's going to kill me." Rick knew he was in big trouble when she got back. So he started thinking up what he was going to say when she got back.

Alexis had the bob for the car and opened it and went over to the storage unit and unlocked it. Inside Alexis found two long hard sided pieces of luggage and four good sized duffel bags.

Alexis started with one of the long cases which had a little weight to it but nothing she couldn't handle. It did cause her to put one of the back seats down to gain the length she needed. After putting that one in the car she went back for the other case.

After that came the first duffel bag, which weighed a lot more then she gave it credit. Getting it into the back of the car was a bigger challenge since she three more bags to put into it.

The second and third weighed just as much as did the fourth. Now Alexis was curious, just what was her dad planning on taking with them? The weight didn't concern her, they could handle this and six people.

Alexis zipped it open and pulled it open and found a smaller hard sided case inside along with several small boxes.

All of the boxes were the same color and size and there were a lot of them.

Remington Golden Saber, .40 Smith &amp; Wesson.

Alexis had a clue as to what this was but she opened it just the same. "Bullets!" Alexis whispered to herself. "What the hell are you doing dad!?" This got Alexis to open the small hard case bag that was in the duffel bag. It held a semi-automatic weapon that had the word SIG on the side of it.

"Weapons and bullets." Alexis whispered out and looked up at the roof, wondering who was in their now old home and what he had done with her dad?

Alexis put it all back into the car and locked it up and left the storage unit open since it was empty now and went back upstairs to find out who was actually up there and were her real dad was.

Alexis was sitting at the breakfast bar eating what Rick had cooked, if it really was Rick and was giving him the silent treatment.

Rick ate his dinner in silence. Alexis had come back and not yelled at him, in fact she hadn't said a word since she got back, and it was slowly eating at him.

Rick put his fork down, since he had reached his breaking point. "Alexis I can explain." Rick offered only to watch Alexis ignore him and just keep eating.

"I know you don't like that I'm watching the news too much and probably think I've finally lost my mind. … However Alexis, do you really buy into this many countries having a rabid rabies epidemics. The US has closed their borders, all international travel has been suspended. Even Europe has started closing their borders. Just this afternoon they called up the National Guard in the area along the border with Mexico and deployed all their big weapons to close the border completely. Tell me this is all because of a rabies outbreak." Rick tries to plead his case and challenges Alexis to contradict him.

"Weapons dad?" Alexis couldn't counter what was on the news, it even had her sucked into watching it a little.

"And what do you think comes next pumpkin with the borders all closed and no flights. They have reporters out at the airports and all flights have practically ended because no one is flying. Amtrak is running almost empty, only those people with bigger commutes are traveling at all.

Tell me what comes next?" Rick challenges her.

Alexis sighed, between the two of them she was still the adult in this family but there were times when her father would decide to grow up momentarily. He just had to pick now as one of those times.

"We need to leave in the morning then and that's if we can get out." Alexis caved in and was off the weapons for now.

"Already thought about that, I booked us a hotel room just a mile away. The drive early in the morning should be simple, in case the bridges are clogged tomorrow. We just need our bags and we can leave." Rick offers.

They have the car loaded with their two bags and the weapons and ammunition that Alexis had already loaded when Rick started reaching the bridge between Manhattan and Jersey. The traffic was moving, but really slowly.

When they got close enough they found that the bridge looked like a military encampment.

There were two M1/A1 Abrams main battle tanks along with 2 Bradley fighting vehicles. There was also a few Humvee's, most of which had a heavy machine gun mounted on them and they were all manned. In addition there were sandbags all along the edge of the river on each side.

As Rick approached there were several soldiers that were all heavily armed and they waved him through along with all the others. "I take it back dad." Alexis tells him about him buying weapons and leaving tonight instead of in the morning. As Alexis waves at the soldier who was waving them through.

It took almost an hour for them to reach the hotel and check in. "We have lots of cancellations, so we have lots of room." One of the two guys on the front desk tells them. "Breakfast is between 6:00 and 9:00 in the morning. Have a pleasant night." And hands over the plastic keys and tells them how to get to their room.

It was a seen one seen them all style of room with two queen sized beds, one bathroom, flat screen TV, small table with two chairs, mini fridge with nothing in it, iron and ironing board, and a safe.

"Be it ever so simple, it's home till morning." Rick offers and promptly turns on the TV to watch the news.

Kate was home and all packed that night and was anxious. She wanted this stupid seminar to be over so she could get back to work, and she wasn't remotely sleepy. "Maybe there is an all-night restaurant that I can relax in if my room isn't ready yet." Kate talks to herself. Knowing that most hotels don't have check-ins until 4:00 pm tomorrow.

Kate has made up her mind and goes out to her cruiser and throws her bag with 4 days of clothes inside along with some odds and ends that she thought she might need, which included the two signed books written my Richard Castle, even if she had read them countless times.

Something had gotten thrown in entire box and all, even if she did only need 4.

Kate was out on the road headed for the bridge leading to Jersey when traffic slowed considerably. Kate wasn't in a hurry and using her lights to get them to move was against regulations, so she just inched along like all the others.

When Kate got close she found the bridge entrance manned by the army, complete with tanks and other big vehicles and humvees, with men manning the machine guns that were mounted on them.

"What the hell?" Kate watched all of them and went across the bridge when the soldier waved her through. It gave her a really bad feeling about this, however she continued on anyway as planned.

"Katherine Beckett, … your reservation doesn't start until tomorrow, however we have had a lot of cancellations so we have room. For you since your part of the seminar party it's only $65 a night for tonight. The other nights are already paid for." He informs Kate who hands over her card.

Kate has her room card and directions on how to get there. Kate is just approaching where she was going to park her car when she saw a man and a young woman, each with a bag leaving their car and going inside the same building she was going to enter.

"Is that?" Kate questions herself. "Nah, can't be. Why would he be in this hotel?" Kate shakes her head. She must really be tired if she's seeing Richard Castle and some really young woman with him entering a hotel. "Maybe he hasn't given up his playboy image, just she was really young looking." Kate's opinion of her favorite author just went down several notches. It was quick so she didn't get a good look at the woman, but her hair color was something she wasn't likely to forget.

Kate grabbed her bag and found her room and dropped it on one of the two beds.

It was a seen one, seen them all hotel room, nothing special. At least it had breakfast in the morning.

Kate decided that she really was tired, so she made preparations to go to bed, and was asleep in minutes, which was different for her. Kate was sure she was going to toss and turn for most of the night, especially with what she saw at the bridge over to here.

Rick however was wide awake with Alexis curled up in the bed next to him. Rick had the sound turned way down so he was only watching the screen.

Rick was jolted awake and found himself sleeping on his bed, or at least he was sleeping, and the TV was still on. It was about now that he heard a number of car horns that sounded like the owner of said horn was really pissed.

Rick rolled out of bed and went over to the window and peeked outside. The sun wasn't quit up just yet, but it was getting close. The parking lot and the street beyond looked like a mad house.

Rick turned to look back into the room to see Alexis still asleep curled up cutely with pillows all around her, while she held on tightly to monkey bunkey.

(Maybe she still is my little girl, just in an older body)

Rick went back to watching the idiots and their cars when he decided to move back over to the TV.

What he saw had him scrambling for the remote and turned the volume up a lot higher.

"ALEXIS! …. Alexis." Rick tried shaking her again to wake her up.

"What dad?" Alexis groans out still half asleep.

"Get up, up, up, up. You need to see." Rick shakes her even harder till she was up and watching her dad move over to his bed to sit in front of the TV and turn the volume up even higher.

Alexis was watching and listening and her mouth was falling open further and further. "MY GOD DAD!"

"We need to move pumpkin, get dressed and grab your bag, we're leaving. … NOW!" Rick tells her. Neither bother using the bathroom to change clothes in, time was something it looked like they didn't have.

Kate was jolted awake by the sounds of car horns and rolled out of bed to look. Being on the top floor she found herself looking out onto chaos as people were trying to drive everywhere all at the same time. "What the hell?"

Kate moved over to the TV and turned it on and started watching and listening. "OH, MY, GOD!?"

Kate scrambled for her phone and pulled it off the charger cord and called Espo. "Espo, what the hell is going on?" Kate asks.

"Ryan and I and others are at the precinct. Marshal Law has been declared and all law enforcement officers have been called in. Didn't you get a call?" Espo tells her.

Kate took a look at her phone and found one missed call. "Damn. I'll be there as fast as I can." Kate tells him starting to strip off her sleep clothes and pull out clothes she can wear.

"It's too late Beckett, you'll never make it. The military has already told us that they are in the process of blowing all the bridges and tunnels that lead into Manhattan. Manhattan island is about to be an island, so unless you can fly there is no way back." Espo tells her.

That got Kate to stop changing her clothes. "Damn seminar!" Kate was really pissed now.

"Find somewhere to go Beckett and take lots of ammunition with you, all you can. And good luck, from what we hear they are everywhere and spreading fast. It only takes seconds to be infected. Just make sure they don't bite you." Espo tells her.

That didn't make sense to Kate. Not let who or what bite me? It did however get Kate back into changing clothes after putting her phone on speaker.

"Find my dad Espo and get him to the precinct. … Please Espo?" Kate needed for him to be safe, he was all she had left.

"We'll do what we can Beckett, but it's a mess out there." Espo would do it, just wasn't sure if him and Ryan would succeed.

"Just do what you can Espo, he's all I have left. I'll call you again when I can." Kate hangs up and stuffs everything into her bag and runs down the stairs with waiting for an elevator sounding like a really bad idea and out the door for her car.

It was a mad house out here too as Kate ran for her car.

Out here she found Richard Castle and his young woman throwing bags into the back of their car. "Hurry up dad, we need to get there, like now!" Alexis yells at him, sounding scared since she was.

DAD! It was his daughter! Kate was ready to kick herself for jumping to conclusions. "WAIT! …. NYPD." Kate shows her badge. "Can I come with you?" Kate asks since it sounded like they had a plan and she didn't.

Rick didn't hesitate while Alexis got in the passenger seat. "Throw in your bag." As Rick holds the rear of the car open.

"Wait one." Kate steps over to her car that was parked next to theirs and opens the trunk and pulls out the bag she knew was in there and throws at Castle, and then reaches in and pulls out the shotgun that was in it also.

That and her bag went into the back of his car and Rick slammed it closed with Rick getting behind the wheel and Kate in the only usable back seat.

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Ellie and Cynthia watched it all play out in life size 3D in their large projection room, and shut the system down as they watched them fly out to the island. "Are we still, ..." Cynthia is interrupted by Ellie's phone ringing. And since everyone had a phone, computer, watch combination, Ellie lifted her hand to look at the screen.

It had Ellie smiling wide, since it said and showed Alexis's face. "HI MOM!"

"Am I still invited out for dinner tonight?" Alexis asks. Alexis didn't know what Ellie was working on and only ever got computers out of Ellie when she asked. Since this project was so black it made a black hole look like a supernova.

"Of course mom, you and my brothers are all invited. I think even your brothers will be there, they said they would anyway. Cynthia and I are excited to have you over. You know how much Cynthia loves seeing you." Ellie tells her mother while watching Cynthia smile wide.

Alexis was the only mother both of them had. The comparisons between themselves and Rick and Kate were almost frighteningly similar. Ellie had a mother while Cynthia grew up without hers and had adopted Alexis as her mother after becoming involved with Ellie years ago.

"It'll be good to have the whole family together again pumpkin." Alexis tells her, which always brought a tear to Ellie's eyes. Ellie had learned things that her mother hadn't yet told her on this project, like the fact that Alexis had been called pumpkin by her grandfather that Ellie herself barely remembered since both Rick and Kate had died when she was little.

Her brothers were older than her since she had been a very late in life surprise to Alexis and her father. Ellie had been just a little girl when she lost the last of her grandparents. Ellie had grown up listening to stories from her mother and had always wished she could have had more time with them.

Ellie really wished she could tell her mother about what she had learned, but she couldn't. It hurt even more watching her father die in the hospital and not being able to tell him what she knew. It was one of the things that had closed her heart, much like Kate had done.

Cynthia had turned out to be her Rick Castle, and saved her life.

Ellie shared her mother's red hair and found Alexis started calling her pumpkin never having heard her grandfather call her mother pumpkin until she had heard it for the first time during this project.

"Cynthia and I are heading home now mom, we'll meet you there." Ellie hung up.

"Let's go baby, we have family to meet, and after we are done and everyone is gone I have a new strap on I intend to try out on you." Ellie smiles and starts to walk away after whispering that last part directly into Cynthia's ear, followed by nibbling on her earlobe.

Cynthia can feel her heart stop as she stops breathing. Ellie always had a way of lighting a fire in her and getting her wet instantly. "I swear Ell, you are going to be the death of me."

It had Ellie laughing. "At least you'll die with a smile on your face as you scream my name."

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And this is the end of our story. Thank you for reading. I'm trying to get back into the groove for the only unfinished story i have. Until i do, it is likely that updates for "Life is a beach" will continue at a slower than normal for me pace.

Happy Reading!


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